


Fate's Decree

by Babykitsune9



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: F/M, Frodo failed as the ring bearer, Frodo is not well, Frodo is unstable, Protective Aragorn, Protective Gimli, Protective Hobbits, Protective Legolas Greenleaf
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-10 14:34:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 26,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20853365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9
Summary: the fellowship failed the first time around thanks to the ring's dark power sinking it's claws into fordo and making him so unstable. forced to return to Rivendell to allow him to heal, and to find a new ring bearer. Things were looking quite grim for them all when the answer quite literally fell into their hands. Aragorn/OC fic, rated M for a reason. my first LOTR so be nice.





	1. Chapter 1

Frodo looked up from the book in his lap upon sensing someone enter his room and found lord Elrond walking towards him with Aragorn close on his heels and smiled softly in welcome. "Good day, Lord Elrond," He nodded to the elf and then let his blue eyes shift to his ranger friend, "Aragorn. What brings the two of you here this day?"

"We came to check up on you and see how you are faring Frodo." Aragorn said kindly, not wanting to upset his young friend as of yet about why the two were truly there, in his room.

They were checking up on the progress of his healing. To see if the ring of power had finally loosened it's grasp on the young hobbit or if they should make an attempt to seek out a new ring bearer to destroy Sauron's ring of power.

"I am feeling well this day. Though a little bit more tired than usual." Frodo said, his once impossibly bright blue eyes had become a dull, paler shade of what they had once been. Looking more and more like that of a corpse a bit more each day since he had first taken up the brave, yet wholly impossible task of being the ring bearer a month or so ago.

And though they had wished to continue their mission to destroy the ring that Frodo still held in his possession even now, they hadn't dared to once the young hobbit had begun to mentally breakdown.

As it was, Sam and Gimli had witnessed some of the worst of his deterioration. Both had found him at one point or another, attempting to kill himself. Once by hanging and the other time when he had simply stumbled over to the edge of a steep cliff and attempted to throw himself off of it.

Both times could have been easily mistaken as accident's if not for the frequency between them. Still both times he had been stopped, though only _one_ of those times had left such lasting effects on the hearts and minds of his friends and comrades.

Even now, Frodo's neck had yet to completely heal due to the ring's dark power.

After all, it believed that if the current ring bearer perished then a new one would have to take his place. And _it_ wanted someone easily manipulated into doing it's bidding.

And it was because of this and Frodo's mental stability that it had been decided in secret that the ring should be taken from him and placed in the hands of someone else. But so far, none among the fellowship felt brave enough to try and make an attempt to carry the accursed trinket.

The hobbit's were off limits after what had happened to Frodo.

Gimli was a dwarf and thus was a greedy being by nature. He could not carry the ring, though he had been trying to talk his way into doing just that.

Aragorn would not/could not carry the ring himself seeing as no one trusted him to do so, like his late father was once trusted.

Gandalf couldn't carry it, he was a being of great magical power. The ring would corrupt him faster than it had Frodo.

Which only left Legolas, however as an elf- he also couldn't carry the ring without being corrupted either. Elves always felt a natural pull towards objects of power. Almost like dwarfs. Though elves were not half as greedy as dwarf's. If he were to attempt carrying the ring, he would go mad.

Aragorn was beginning to think that fate was playing a cruel joke upon them because of how things had played out for the fellowship so far. And unless the ring was destroyed... Sauron would inevitably find it and_ kill_ them all. He hated seeing Frodo so broken and irreparaply damaged.

But he hated the fact that due to their first attempt to destroy the ring, failing- they were now placed in a position where they must place another innocent person in the same position that Frodo had been in before. And would possibly lead said person to their destruction doing so.

But as much as he hated that fact, they couldn't simply do nothing. All of middle Earth was counting on the ring's destruction.

What was one life to save so many from death?

He subconsciously fisted his hands at his sides and muttered that he needed to be somewhere and with a faint and barely audible 'goodbye' stalked from the room. He suddenly felt the urge to destroy something. Leaving his young hobbit friend to stare after him and wonder what he had done wrong.

(******************************************************************************************************************************)

Earth-

She was listening to Mal's song when it happened. The lyrics echoing so loudly in her ears that it managed to drown out any sound or warning that she might have been given if she hadn't been so desperate to block out the world around her and simply be in a world of her own making.

After all, _why_ would she want to pay attention to anything in the world?

She had nothing to pay attention for- er, _live_ for rather.

Her parents were gone. A month now, today was the anniversary of their bizarre ritualistic murder/suicide. Her older brother had left her, not wanting to help her get through her depression and whatnot.

He was getting married in two days, something that should have been a joyous occasion, and just last night she had called him up to scream at him for not just abandoning her when she was barely sixteen._ No_\- he had abandoned her not even two days after their parents had died without any remorse, she might add, to go and fuck his little whore two hundred miles away.

Needless to say, her brother never wanted to speak to her again. _Surprise, surprise. _

Not that she really cared anyway, she'd give his marriage an hour before it devolved into the latest episode of Jerry Springer, complete with fist fights and chair throwing and shit.

She had no friends, thanks entirely to her dad sleeping with a bunch of them while they had barely been legal. So- there was that. She had her job and that was really about it. But even that wasn't all that great.

She may have worked for herself and stuff, but she barely made any money from her work. Certainly not enough to keep up with the rent and such. In fact she wouldn't be all that shocked to leave that she was homeless by the time that she returned to her...shed in the wall, apartment.

Looking down at her MP3 player, she paused in her steps slightly as she fished it out of her pocket to turn it up a little bit more, not caring in the least that the volume was up as far as it would go.

Once she was done fiddling with her MP3, she then tilted her head back as she reached up with one hand to brush her crimson hair out of her face and didn't even realize that she was in the street until the screech of tires reached her ears, even over the sound of her music and she turned her head just in time to see the vehicle careening towards her.

* * *

Aragorn didn't bother waiting around outside of Frodo's room to see if Elrond had managed to pry the ring from him. As far as he was currently concerned, the lord was on his own for now. Instead he decided to busy himself training or something.

Walking out of the palace with his sword in hand, he made a beeline straight for the forest in the hopes that he could have a few hours to himself before the next meeting took place to discuss possible candidates to carry the ring. Frankly speaking, he knew that finding the next person to be the ring bearer, would be an impossible task.

Especially since everyone was capable of being corrupted by the ring.

He was half way to the forest when there was a loud sound almost like a crash, followed by black smoke. Pausing because he was uncertain now if he wanted to bother entering to forest, he let his eyes scan the tree line anxiously. His hand automatically went to his sword, just in case, as he began to take a tentative step forward.

Some part of him instinctively aware that something lay just beyond the tree line, within the forest. Though whether or not it was something dangerous like a Wraith- he had no idea. But he decided not to take the chance.

Tightening his fingers around the handle of his sword, Aragorn slowly and cautiously made his way into the forest. Not bothering to look back towards the palace since he was sure that Gandolf and several of the palace guards were already on their way to make sure that there was nothing amiss.

He found a small trail of fire, nothing big or truly damaging. Merely tiny flames licking along the forest floor here and there. Making a peculiar sort of trail for him to follow.

And follow it, he did.

The trail moved through thickets and underbrush and only stopped once he reached the shallows of the river border of Elrond's lands. Dropping his hand away from his sword at the horrifying sight that greeted him, he picked up his pace enough to get him over to the small, child-like figure laying on it's back.

The little one was convulsing, damaged lungs struggling to breathe around the blood filling them as he dropped down to his knees next to him/her so that he could assess the damage to the little's one's body.

The first thing that he noticed, was that the 'little one' as he had dubbed him/her in his mind, was in fact female. A very young, very small, delicately boned- female. The second thing that he noticed, aside from her injuries and the amount of blood that she was loosing, was that she was not only fully conscious. But was fighting to remain so despite the apparent agony that she must have been in.

She looked at him with glistening, wide soft green eyes and he could almost read the panic in them. She was beyond afraid. She was outright _terrified_.

Her pale lips moved, as if to say something, but all that she managed to do was make a gurgling sound as she coughed up some blood.

Reaching out he took one of her small hands in his and tried to comfort her since he very much doubted that she would survive for much longer anyways, as he heard heavy footfalls heading their way, and quietly began speaking to the little one as he watched her slowly fade into unconsciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

Once the soldiers and lord Elrond had come to see what was going on, the little one had been moved as quickly and carefully as possible with the elves, and of course, his and Gandalf's direction. The only thing on everyone's mind at the moment was saving the little one.

And somehow miraculously- they did.

Injured and almost upon death's door, the little one may have been, but she fought tooth and nail to live. And for the past week in a half she had slept through having the few broken bones that they had discovered once her strange clothing had been cut away from her, being reset. And then being carefully bathed, her wounds cleansed and bandaged. Why she somehow even managed to sleep through the healing potions and herbs being forced down her throat!

And speaking from personal experience with such things, Aragorn could say that those damned concoctions could raise the dead they were so foul.

However...there was something most peculiar about the little one that he and Gandalf and lord Elrond had noticed within the first few hours of trying to heal the little one.

They had noticed that many of her injuries, especially the ones where her flesh had been torn open all the way to the bone, had closed and was healing at a much more rapid pace than an ordinary human's would.

Why by day two of taking care of her injuries, Aragorn himself had seen one of the worst of her wounds simply knit together right before his bewildered eyes. Leaving smooth, unscarred flesh where there should have still been a gaping wound with missing tissue and muscle.

Four days after bringing her to the palace to heal her, her bones were finally knit together.

And now a week in a half later, all that was left of her injuries were some very dark colored bruises discoloring her skin in places, and a small, but terrible looking wound that went across her throat that may or may not impede her ability to speak normally.

He sat in a large, wing backed chair with plush cushioning, his eyes barely leaving the form of the little one. Now that her life was no longer in jeopardy, he and the others had many questions. The first of which was a toss up between 'Who are you?' and of course, 'How did you get here?'

Others were questions about the strange clothing that she had been wearing, damaged as it had been, they had _still_ been able to tell that it wasn't the clothing or a normal peasant. In fact the shirt that she had worn was made of heavy cotton or wool. The color of the fabric had once been a brilliant royal purple color. One that many human noble's used as their household colors.

Colors that only one of their own would dare to wear.

And then there was the somewhat coarse, and rough material left from her leggings. It felt almost like burlap to him when he had touched it. Testing the strange texture of it with his fingertips.

And then there was her healing ability.

It was rare to come across a person with such power. Incredibly so.

Galdalf had been anxiously awaiting her to awaken so that he may ask her about her power, and how it is often applied. However, Aragorn had put his foot firmly down about asking of it just yet since he had a feeling that either she didn't know that she had the ability before now, or she simply didn't know how to control it.

And then there was her physical appearance.

She...didn't exactly blend in with normal folk. The main reason for this being her hair. The color was such a deep and vivid red that it was practically like crimson velvet in color. The length of it was odd too. It wasn't short per se, but it wasn't nearly as long as it should have been either.

Most families that he knew of refused to cut the hair of their female children, believing that doing so would in some way take away the child's attractiveness to others. Especially those of prospective future husband's.

The little one's hair had definitely been cut. Falling down around her small heart shaped face and down to the middle of her back in silken crimson curls.

Her other defining features were the odd shape of her green eyes and the paleness of her skin which looked like it had much in common with freshly fallen snow. It wasn't a sickly shade, merely...oddly pale.

He was brought out of his musings somewhat when the little one twitched and made a barely audible whimpering sound that had him not only sitting up straighter in his chair, but his eyes focused on her as his heart beat frantically in his chest.

He saw her shift beneath the covers, turning her head slightly as she seemed to struggle with finally regaining consciousness. She made another whimpering sound, and Aragorn decided that perhaps she wasn't quite ready to wake yet, and quietly got up from his chair and moved to stand next to the bed where she lay and gently placed one of his hands on her forehead and frowned when he found that she was a little bit warmer than usual.

_Is she beginning to become ill?_ He wondered when he noticed that she had finally settled down and was now sleeping quietly again. Humming in thought, Aragorn carefully brushed her crimson bangs back from her face and quietly told her to continue resting, he would be back shortly and then straightened his spine and let his hand fall to his side and turned and left to go collect something to give her for her slight fever to make her more comfortable.

He returned barely ten minutes later with a tea containing an elfish fever remedy and paused in the doorway when he saw that the little one was not only awake, but gingerly sitting up on the bed. The soft blanket and sheets, held carefully against her torso as she seemed to be examining herself.

Especially where she was still covered in bandages.

A small frown marred her pretty little face as she studied the linen wrappings for a moment or so longer before she started to scan the room around her. There was no immediate sign of recognition in her expression, nothing at all to tell him that she knew she was within a elfish palace.

There was however, confusion, anxiety and a great deal of fear though.

Watching her lift her small shaking hands, her slender fingers gripped her hair in a white knuckled grip while silent cry escaped her at the same moment that she finally broke down and began to cry.

Biting his bottom lip for a moment, he decided that perhaps he should leave her be once he gave her the tea for her fever. He wasn't all that sure that his company would be welcome at the moment anyways.

Taking a small step inside of the room, he watched as she lifted her head to look at him. Her green eyes locking on his form as several more tears slipped down her pale cheeks. "Pardon the intrusion, little one, but you are running a little bit of a fever and I've brought you something to help with it." He said as he tried to ignore her distress. But such things were difficult for a man like him to ignore.

Her distress was absolutely heart wrenching.

Gently setting the delicate porcelain cup down on the table beside the bed and dropped to his knees on the floor, next to where she sat and started to reach out to take her hand when she quickly moved away from him. Indicating that she didn't wish to be touched.

The action stung him, though he knew that it shouldn't have.

Settling his hands where she could see them on the edge of the bed, he studied her for a moment before asking, "Are you in any pain? Do you feel hungry? You've been out for a while, so I can only assume that you must be rather famished at this point."

She didn't answer. She merely placed a small hand against her throat where her scar was and traced it almost absent mindedly before turning wide terror stricken eyes to him.

She must have just realized that she couldn't speak due to the damage.

_No wonder she is frightened_. Aragorn thought to himself as he reached out, slowly, very slowly so as not to frighten her further and gently grasped her wrist and pulled her hand away from her throat as he quietly said, "Shhh. Calm yourself little one. When I found you, barely a week in a half a go- you were very injured. To be honest, I thought that you would pass on, your wounds were so great. But you didn't, and you're here. Safe and sound, if a little worse for the wear. You have nothing to fear here. You're voice may yet work, in time, if it's allowed to heal properly. Now please, drink the tea that I brought for you and I will go and get you something to eat."

Her limp fingers wrapped around his hand as he started to removed his hand from her, her grip on him was tighter than he had expected. It was almost painful even.

But then she was incredibly fearful, she had every right to be.

He squeezed her hand back, ever so slightly to let her know that she would be fine while giving her an small, encouraging smile and then carefully extracted himself from her grasp to go fetch her some food. Hoping that once she had eaten and drank the tea that he had brought for her that perhaps, she would calm down a bit and settle in to rest some more.


	3. Chapter 3

Aragorn had just left the kitchen with some food and drink on a tray when he was sort of ambushed by Legolas and the other hobbit's. "Aragorn!" Peregrin said as he sort of more or less jumped out at him, startling the ranger a little bit. At least so much so that he wished that there was a bit more privacy within the palace walls.

"Hello Peregrin. How are you and the others doing?"

"We're making do. We've been visiting a lot with Frodo."

Aragorn felt a small smile curve his lips as the little hobbit told him about everyone, and everything that he could think of to tell him about within the span of one breath as his friend Legolas stepped out of his hiding place and settled his hand on the top of the hobbit's head and playfully chided him.

"I thought that you wished to learn to ambush people properly. You cannot be a fierce hunter without being able to do so."

Aragorn chuckled as he looked down at the little hobbit and then glanced at his elf friend. "A fierce hunter?" He asked softly, his tone both amused and questioning all at once. He couldn't fathom a little Halfling like Peregrin being fierce, much less a hunter.

Sure the hobbit was brave enough. And with the right number of friends could even do some real, _actual_ damage. But he was more of a _watch-from-afar-least-he-get-hurt_ sort of fellow. Oh! And a screamer, dear lord the little halfling could scream.

Why after they had left the palace the first time on their mission to destroy the ring, he had wandered off into the woods to do something and had had a spider drop out of one of the trees onto his head and had screamed bloody murder and run right out of the woods, and past the lot of then and had run right to the nearest body of water and had jumped in to drown the spider.

Needless to say, if ever the little hobbit got lost or scared after being separated from the rest of the group again- he was easily found. Still...it was good that he was trying to improve his skills from terribly lacking to...fierce hunter.

The thought alone caused him to laugh softly again as he tried to imagine little Peregrin trying to ambush some orcs and then realizing that perhaps the confidence that he had gained from Legolas's lessons was a mite misplaced and runs screaming into the night with the monsters after him.

It was enough to wipe the smile and all traces of amusement from his face as he turned his head to look at the elf walking beside him. Legolas caught the look and gave him a little bit of a funny look before telling Peregrin to tell Aragorn the rules in which he'd had to agree to follow before he would teach him to ambush people and such.

Aragorn was relieved to hear the hobbit tell him the rules. One of which was never engage any orcs alone. Run away from them, screaming as loud a he could so that they could find him _faster_.

Peregrin seemed happy enough with how things were going, despite the rules that Legolas had laid out for him to follow. Which was good. The lessons would help him get better at certain things, like defending himself and such- and the rules would keep him alive.

Finally one of his friends decided to ask, "How is the girl? Has she woken up yet?" Glancing down at the hobbit, he almost smiled again at his questions while he patiently waited for the ranger to respond. Even Legolas seemed to be waiting for a reply.

"She awakened a short time ago. But she isn't doing very well. She's...very scared. And on top of that, her voice cannot be used at this point. So communication would be a little bit difficult for her at the moment. She is also running a small fever, I took her something for it but am uncertain if she has bothered to try so much as touching it. She was...very distressed when I left her to fetch some food for her." Aragorn said.

"I'm sorry to hear that. It must be very hard for her right now. What with being so little and scared and all." Peregrin said kindly before Legolas chimed in,

"Gandalf found some peculiar items among the clothing that she was wearing when she was brought here, among which several portraits were found. He used his magic to breathe life into them so that we could learn more about her."

Aragorn looked at the elf in slight surprise before asking, "Did you learn anything of use?"

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"Well are you going to share?"

Legolas smirked at him as he finally reached the little one's room and then said, "Yeah. Look out for her right hook." Aragorn looked at him oddly for a moment and then slowly shook his head and entered the room, leaving them behind for the moment.

The moment that he was gone from their sight, Legolas tapped Peregrin on his shoulder and bent down a little bit to ask him if he would like to try his hand at ambushing Merry next, and watched as the halfling's expression went positively feral with glee, causing the elf to shake his head as he laughed and quickly followed the hobbit to where Merry had been spending a majority of his time.

* * *

The moment that Aragorn entered the room where the little one was, again. He noted that she had been out of bed. Not just out of bed, but she had used the chamber pot, washed herself and had even managed to find a brush and some clothing to wear.

Raising his brow slightly as he took in her appearance now, she seemed calmer to a degree. But looks could often be deceptive and he wouldn't put it past her to be hiding what she was thinking. Or if she were thinking of some way to escape the palace and so on.

From what Legolas had told him, she was a bit of a spitfire. So he wouldn't put such foolishness passed her. At least not right now when she wasn't exactly thinking straight anyways.

"Well, you look a mite better now," He said as he walked over to where she was sitting, giving her a once over to actually check her without resorting to touching her since he wasn't certain that she would be all that receptive to him again.

Her soft green eyes flickered to his face for a moment before he noticed a slight blush working it's way into her pale cheeks before she quickly looked away from him.

_Well that was...interesting_. He thought as he carefully set the tray of food and drink across her lap and then moved to see if she had drunk the tea that he had left her. He was somewhat satisfied to see that the cup was empty. Good, he thought as he quietly drug his chair closer to the bed and watched her patiently as she seemed to be examining the food that he had brought before she decided whether or not she wanted to bother trying any of it.

He had brought the little one a nice vegetable stew, some fresh from the oven- buttered bread, several pieces of roasted chicken's breast and cheese and some honey sweetened tea to drink.

Finally he watched her as she slowly began eating, starting with the buttered bread and soup. To be perfectly honest, he didn't think that she would be able to finish the whole meal at this moment in time. She had gone the past week in a half without food, so he wasn't entirely sure what she could and could not handle in her stomach. But she surprised him by eating every bit of food and slowly drinking the tea until it was gone.

Finally once everything was gone, she let out a breathy sound that he took for a sigh of contentment and smiled slightly as he leaned forward and took the tray from her lap so that he could set it aside for the moment as he said, "I'm impressed. I didn't know if you would be able to eat so much as half of that. You must have been more hungry than I imagined. I'll be sure that you have a decent sized meal three times a day from now on to help you get your strength back."

Once the tray was aside and he was sitting back in his chair again, he decided that now was as good as any time to introduce himself. "My name is Aragorn. What is yours? Is there some way that you can tell me?"

She frowned at him for a moment before lifting a hand and making an S shape in the air in front of her. Aragorn felt his eyes widen ever so slightly in shock and surprise as she slowly spelled out the name Sara in the air before letting her hand drop.

"Sara? That is your name?"

He received a small nod from her and grinned as he said politely, "Well Sara- It is nice to meet you." She merely nodded her head at him again, as if to say, 'Nice to meet you too.' After that, he spent the better part of an hour or so simply asking her small questions to get to know her better.

He learned that her full name was Sara Tyler, she was sixteen (something that he found more than a little bit strange given how young she appeared to look. To his eyes, she appeared to be little more than eleven or twelve) her body was short, delicate, and had no physical attributes that one who was at least sixteen would have.

Still, the fact that she appeared to be so physically the opposite of what she said she was, while confusing to him, also made him feel a strange need to protect her.

That aside, he also learned that her parents were dead, her brother had abandoned her, her favorite colors and past times. Hobbies and such.

She had managed to tell him a little bit of everything about her life and he had shared some of his own in turn. Finally at the end of the second hour, he noticed that she was trying rather valiantly to stay awake. But was failing miserably. So after helping her to lay back down, he carefully tucked her into bed and left her to rest.


	4. Chapter 4

Over the next day or so, when Aragorn wasn't able to spend any time with Sara, he attended several meetings with the rest of the fellowship to inform them of what he knew of her so far. Everyone listened quietly when he told them of how distressed she was upon waking, how upset she had been upon discovering that her voice couldn't be used. He had hoped that by telling them what he knew, Elrond would leave her be.

However that had been a foolish endeavor on his part.

The very moment that he had naively mentioned that her parents were dead and her brother had abandoned her, he had practically thrown her to the wolves.

Even the hobbits seemed more than a little bit uncomfortable/outraged by what Elrond had decided to do with the girl. He told the fellowship that at the next meeting, the girl would attend with them and be tested as a potential ring bearer. He said that he would have the girl slip the ring on for a moment and they would see if she was affected by it's dark power.

Needless to say, that Aragorn had stood up and all but snarled at the elf that it was _not_ their place to force another innocent- especially one that he and the others knew was little more than a child- to carry something of such darkness close to her breast.

The end result wouldn't be good. Aragorn was nothing but sure of that.

However Elrond didn't listen. The fact of the matter was that he didn't care. He merely posed the question, Was the life of one really worth the lives of hundreds upon thousands? He didn't think so.

And while the rest of the fellowship didn't totally agree nor disagree Aragorn's parting words to the lot of them made them flinch at the amount of anger and scorn that he managed to put behind them.

"When did we become such weaklings and cowards that we would _actually_ be willing to hide behind the skirt of a mere child, and expect her to fight our battles for us? Are we not warriors? Are we not men? _No_\- I see no warriors here. I see no men that I can call my brothers in arms. All I see right now are a pathetic lot intending to become like the very monster we fight against. Tell me, what is the use in fighting Sauron when we will lose our souls and become something just as bad as he?"

His words, to the rest of the fellowship, were at the very least worth considering since he was more or less right.

They were given an nearly impossible task and had failed to do it. They knew that weighing the life of one innocent child against the lives of many was wrong.

So, so very wrong.

However they had a task to carry out and as much as it pained them, they couldn't simply say that if the girl was capable of carrying the ring with little to no effect on her being- then she wouldn't come in handy. To simply overlook her because of her age and gender and defenselessness would be foolish in the extreme.

If she could carry the ring for their quest then she would, whether she liked it or not.

However they were not so cruel as to lie to themselves about the fact that her being didn't completely matter to them. They would swear oaths to protect her from harm the same as they had sworn to Frodo. And they would not fail her where they had him.

Already Gandalf had pulled Merry, Sam, and Peregrin aside and asked if they would mind continuing to be part of the fellowship. He had already explained that their jobs were to act as protectors and companions to the girl if she did wind up being the new ring bearer.

He had even gone so far as to assure the three hobbits that they needn't worry about Frodo. He would be staying behind at Rivendell when they once again set out on their mission.

He had even spoken to Elrond about his actions on pushing the ring on the girl when she may not be completely aware of what it was nor what it would mean to carry it. He was shocked when the elf lord quietly confessed that the close proximity to the ring was beginning to eat away at his mind.

Elves were not meant to be so selfish, petty and cruel.

The very nature of an elf was to bring light, compassion, wisdom and healing- to the very beings of the earth. He even said that he knew that it was asking a lot of the girl, but in truth he was uncertain how much longer it would be until the ring finally sank it's dark claws into him for good and he wound up doing something unforgiveable.

He had no wish to harm Frodo. Nor anyone else.

But it was imperative that the girl or someone else take the ring far from Rivendell as soon as possible and though Gandalf was reluctant, under the light of these new developments, he still agreed.

* * *

Aragorn was still outraged by what his long time friend was planning for Sara. It was odd that he was acting as if her being was of little to no consequence to him. As if her health and well being shouldn't _matter_ to any of them. He understood that they needed to destroy the ring before Sauron turned his sights on Rivendell and sent his legions to kill them all and take the accursed thing back into his possession.

But to foist this task upon a child... A little girl who had yet to really live- I was beyond the ranger's realm of understanding. And only served to anger him even more.

When had they become so senselessly weak and deliberately cruel?

Looking back at what the ring had done to Frodo, he feared that should Elrond succeed in forcing Sara to take the ring, that she would become irreparably damaged by the darkness it held within it. At worst, he expected that she would die somewhere along the journey, due to one circumstance or another.

Whether it was the harsh wilderness, climate change, starvation- This was not a job for a mere girl. And while he knew her to be a fighter, and knew that she would not give up easily, he _feared_ for her. He truly feared for her. Far more than he feared for anyone else.

And it was because of that, that he would take the damned thing and journey alone to the mountain of fire and destroy it. He wasn't his father, he would not fail. Not if it meant protecting Sara from any further harm.

Walking down the halls, towards his little one's room, he got almost half way there before pausing upon turning the corner. There on one of the man balconies of the palace, stood Sara. His breath caught in his throat at the sight of her. Fully dressed in a lovely emerald velvet gown with intricate gold thread embroidery on the sleeves, hem of the neckline, bodice, and skirt.

Her hair was damp from being freshly washed, brushed, and had a emerald satin ribbon pulling the top part of it back away from her face. And he could almost smell the sweet scent of elfish soap clinging to her skin ever from where he stood.

He wondered what kind she had decided to use. The lily? The magnolia? The peony and peach? Or perhaps a different one. Rose scented things were popular among young girls. At least the few that he had had the distinct pleasure of knowing. But then, she didn't exactly like rose scented things.

He'd learned that earlier in the past few days when speaking with her.

Finally exhaling the breath that he hadn't realized that he had been holding as he began walking again, this time at a much more sedate pace than before. His long legs closing the distance between them easily.

Sara had either not realized that he was there or was so immersed in looking around that she simply hadn't noticed him. Whatever the reason, he was able to get close enough to her to wrap his arms around her small body and bury his face in the silken curtain of her hair, eliciting a odd sounding squeak from her as she jumped within his loose hold upon her and twisted her head around to look at who was taking liberties with her person.

"You look...lovely in your new dress." He said as he lifted his head from her hair so that he could rest his chin on her slender shoulder for a moment or so. He hadn't realized before, that for someone who looked so much like an eleven or twelve year old, she was strangely tall for her appearance.

Her head barely reached the middle of his chest, forcing him to bend down a little bit just to rest his chin on her shoulder, but he didn't mind.

She was _still_ his little one.

Deciding that he had taken enough liberties with her person for one day, he sighed as he slowly and reluctantly straightened his spine and released her from his grasp before asking, "Have you been well today?" She nodded.

"Have you eaten anything yet?" She shook her head slowly, not able to tell him that she hadn't been given any food for the past day or so.

He frowned at this since it was well past lunch time, and decided that perhaps he should take her with him on a kitchen raid. It was apparently the only way that he could ensure that she had something to eat since he couldn't trust Elrond to provide her with food. But then he wondered, if she hadn't been given any food- how did she procure her dress and the soap that she had used to bathe with?

It was nigh impossible to get one thing without another unless she had been visited by someone other than Elrond's usual servants, or himself. Which was looking very possible at the moment.

"Wait if you haven't eaten- then who gave you your pretty dress? I'm assuming it wasn't the lord of the palace. Nor was it me. So who was it?"

She shrugged and indicated that whoever it was, was a small fellow. Which gave him only so much to work with. Either Gimli or one of the hobbits. Though which one, he couldn't be totally certain about. He was just glad that Legolas hadn't paid her a visit yet.

Knowing his little one's temperament, she just might become so annoyed with the busybody that she would strangle him with his own braids or something. Shrugging his shoulders, he decided that it was best to dismiss the whole who-gave-her-her-dress-issue in lieu of simply taking her hand in his and gently tugging her along behind him as he started back the way he came.

Quietly telling her that the two of them were going to forage in the kitchens for some food. Adding the words, _Like_ _beggars_, in a scandalized tone that elicited an enchanted sounding soft, breathless laugh from his companion as they walked together towards their destination.


	5. Chapter 5

After raiding the kitchen, Aragorn led Sara to the dinning hall to eat and paused for a moment inside of the door when he saw all four of the hobbits, Legolas, and Gimli all sitting together at the end of a table, chatting and eating. Looking down at Sara, he was about to suggest that they find someplace else to eat when Merry noticed them and stood up and started calling his name and waving in an excited manner.

Leaving him with little choice but to go and _see_ what the young hobbit wanted. He was about to ask Sara to wait for him by the door since he doubted that he would linger more than a few moments, when she silently sighed and took his hand in hers again and started walking.

Somehow managing to partially drag him over to the hobbit- against his will, he might add. Which was no ordinary feat for someone her size and build.

He was after all six foot three inches, and wore a majority of his heavy leather and hidden armored clothing and weapons on his person at _all_ times, even when he slept. Making his usual weight of one hundred and eighty pounds, more like two hundred and fifty six pounds.

So again- having his little one being able to partially drag him anywhere was no small feat.

In fact he was so shocked by what she had just done that he didn't notice that the hobbits, Legolas and Gimli were staring at her in near slack jawed disbelief as well.

The only thing that he really took note of after her hand slid from his and she seated herself between Peregrin and the one other empty bench space where he supposed she wished him to sit down- was that the room was suddenly silent. Deathly so.

Quickly gathering his scattered wits, Aragorn shook his head and quietly moved over to where she sat, suddenly staring down Legolas and Gimli through slightly narrowed eyes, and took his place next to her. Effectively stopping her little staring contest with the two as he tapped the table next to her plate with his index finger and softly commanded her to eat before turning his eyes to Merry and waiting for him to speak of what he wished so badly to say.

Merry looked at Sara and then him and asked almost shyly, "I-Is she Miss Sara?"

Aragorn tilted his head a little bit at the question before picking up a piece of bread from his plate and saying, "Aye. This is she."

"Oh. Hello Miss Sara. Are ye liking your stay so far?" Merry asked, apparently trying to make conversation.

Sara blinked at him for a moment and then lifted a hand and placed it against her throat, causing Merry to frown before he was elbowed rather sharply by Peregrin who then leaned in and hissed at his friend, "She cannot speak, fool."

Merry looked like he was about to say something snide, when he caught both Sara and Aragorn looking at him and blushed and muttered an quiet apology as Peregrin picked up where Merry left off. "You'll have to forgive Merry, Miss Sara. He means well. He's merely...somewhat _forgetful_ of the fact that you came to us injured. As for why Merry called Aragorn over- since it involves you- I see no reason why you need to be left in the dark, so to speak. You see miss, we are all part of a fellowship," He said as he motioned to everyone sitting at the table on either side of where she sat. "With a very important mission that we must fulfill. And it has been brought to our attention earlier today, that you may be joining us soon."

Aragorn growled in irritation around his mouthful of food, and glared at the hobbit. Wondering if he could get away with knocking him unconscious or something. He was about half sure that he both could and couldn't make it look like an accident.

_He. Did. Not. Want. Sara. To. Know. Of. What. May. Be. Happening. To. Her. Soon. _She was going to be confused enough as it already was. Yet his growl, nor his glare seemed to stop motor mouth Peregrin. The damned Halfling just kept going. Explaining their mission and about the ring before he could so much as choke down the food in his mouth and clear his throat.

Sara listened to everything that Peregrin said, her expression was kept carefully blank as she absorbed everything before Peregrin finally seemed to run out of steam and quietly asked, "What I- uh...need you to know is that my friends and I have been given a special job of procuring clothing and supplies and such for you just in case you do leave with us. I was wondering Miss, what sort of things you think that you may need for a long and perilous journey? Clothing and weapon wise, that is. Is there anything specific that you would need to help you move more quickly so that you can keep up?"

Aragorn had finally had enough and showed as much by slamming one of his fists down on the table, startling Sara and several of the hobbits as his snarled, "She won't be needing anything. She isn't going to Mordor. _I'll carry the damned_ _ring myself before I let any of you force such a task on her!_" The moment that he fell silent again, he sat there for a moment trying to calm himself when he felt Sara's small hands on his forearm.

Her expression was calm, but he could see her concern for him in her soft green eyes and felt his sudden burst of anger leave him, draining away as if he had never been angry or upset at all. It was...peculiar how his emotions seemed to rage within him one moment and then settle so abruptly the next.

Swallowing past the sudden lump in his throat, Aragorn reached out and gently cupped the girl's cheek in his hand and quietly pulled her towards him so that he could warp his arms around her. Not caring overly much that by doing so, his body language seemed to suggest that there was more between them than mere friendship.

He rested his chin on the top of her head and muttered softly for her to forgive his violent outburst. He did not mean to upset, nor distress her.

Sara merely patted his chest, right over his heart with her small hand to silently show that she was fine. All was forgiven, before he turned his attention to Peregrin and the others and apologized to his friends as well as he slowly released the girl from his grasp and let her settle back on the bench again.

"I'm no longer hungry, Peregrin, could you Merry, Sam and Frodo do me a favor and see that Sara eats as much as she can without getting ill?"

"Oh. Sure. We can do that. Right guys?"

There was a round of muttered, 'aye's' and at least one softly spoken, 'right' as Aragorn nodded to them and then quietly slipped from his seat on the bench and told Sara that he would return to get her in a little while, and then quickly left the dining hall.

Leaving Sara in the halfling's capable hands for a little bit might be good for her.

It may be good for him to get away for a little while so that he could think a little bit clearer. It wouldn't do for him to continue to fly into more unprovoked rages.

* * *

Back in the dining hall, Legolas and Gimli exchanged a look as their minds tried to comprehend what they had just witnessed between Aragorn and the girl. Legolas had a little more insight on such matters due to the fact that he had lived much longer than the dwarf. But even he didn't know _everything_.

It was impossible to.

And yet both he and Gimli seemed to recognize the subtle power that the girl had either purposely or subconsciously wielded on their friend in an effort to calm him of his anger and rage.

"You saw that too right?" Legolas asked the dwarf curiously. His eyes were sharp enough, but he wanted to make sure that he didn't mistake what had just happened. If Gimli had seen Sara wield her power on Aragorn as well, then he would know for sure.

"Aye. I saw. What did she do?"

"She manipulated his emotions. Shoved his anger and rage at the lot of us to the back of his mind. It'll be a little difficult for him to bring it out again unless he's _really_ pushed." Legolas said, sounding more than a little bit impressed.

"Should we tell lord Elrond? He may need to know that she has such abilities?"

"No," Legolas said sharply as he turned his head to look at the dwarf. "I would not tell him anything. Not now."

"Why not?"

"Because the close proximity to the ring has begun to eat at his mind. Finding out that the girl has any such abilities, could push him over the edge. He may order her killed."

"What?! Why?" Gimli asked in an outraged tone that had his blond friend quickly placing his finger to his lips and making a hushing sound before he quietly said,

"Because the ring is attracted to power. Any power that it thinks it can manipulate to it's advantage."

"But-"

"I said hush, dwarf," Legolas said sharply, as he glared at him. Knowing very well that Gimli didn't understand the significance of what he was trying to say. Gimli did as he was told, albeit reluctantly, as Legolas continued speaking in hushed tones. "The ring will choose her as it's new master thinking that it can manipulate her to do it's bidding. That power of hers will give her a great advantage over it because it will not be able to bend her to it's will."

"You mean-" Gimli started to say in a loud voice, drawing the attention of Sara and the hobbits whom had been in the process of placing a small mountain of food on her plate.

Legolas shushed him again and gave the group an slightly awkward smile before they slowly went back to what they were doing as he none too gently punched Gimli off of his seat, and pretended that he didn't find the fact that the dwarf was sprawled down on the floor amusing.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day when Aragorn went to see Sara, he found her missing from her room and frowned. He had wanted to apologize again for his temper tantrum, and for having upset her. He had even gone to the trouble, of wandering around the forest a little ways and picking some exotic, sweetly scented flowers for her. Thinking that she may appreciate them and the effort he had put into collecting them.

Laying the flowers down on the table next to her bed, he looked around for a moment to see if he could spot anything that would indicate where she had gone off to.

He could see her dress from yesterday laid over the back of the chair that he often sat in whenever he intended to have a long visit with her.

Walking over to the chest where Sara's new wardrobe (thanks entirely to the hobbit's- all damn four of them) lay, he opened the top of it and peeked inside to see what was missing, and found that her violet silk dress was missing.

Humming, he then closed the lid and left the room to go and search her out.

It took some doing, but he finally found out where she was. Though he was greatly displeased with where he found her. It would seem that Lord Elrond and the others had thought it best to hold another meeting, without him, thus leaving the little one without a protector to keep them from foisting the task of destroying the ring on her.

Needless to say, he was pissed when he stormed into the room.

And not a moment too soon either. Sara had just been handed the ring and told to put it on her finger. And of course, Aragorn couldn't allow that to happen. So without saying so much as a word to the elvish lord nor anyone else present, he walked over to her and slapped the ring from her hand, causing her to jump and look at him with wide slightly panic stricken eyes.

She doesn't know what is going to happen. His mind tried to tell him, but his rationality was quickly pushed to the back of his mind as he seized her by the arms and drew her to him, wrapping one arm around her slender shoulders as he turned his head to glare at Elrond.

"What is the meaning of this?" He asked in a deceptively calm voice as he let his fingers absently play with her hair in an effort to try and calm her. He didn't like that she was so upset.

"You know very well what the meaning is _ranger_. The question is, what do you think that you are doing?" Elrond snapped angrily. Missing the way that Gandalf looked at him with a dark frown upon his face.

"I think that I am stopping this sick game that you seem so set on playing with Sara's life. If someone must carry the ring to Mount Doom it will be me. I will bear the burden of darkness that may very well destroy my soul. But I will refuse to let you force her to."

"It is no longer your call, Aragorn. She has already placed the ring on her finger once and nothing happened. We merely wished to test her again to be certain." Elrond said, watching the way the man's grip tightened ever so slightly on the girl.

Did the man really think that he was doing the child any favors here? Coddling her as he was.

Elrond was well aware of the fact that what he was asking of the girl was selfish and cruel. But it already seemed as if the ring had chosen. And for that he could only feel grateful and somewhat relieved that his soul wouldn't be darkened by it's power for much longer.

The girl was to become the savior of middle earth and everyone living there. She would be a legend among all of the races for hundreds even thousands of years!

Why could Aragorn not see that her sacrifice was necessary?

Aragorn turned away from the man that he had grown up calling his friend and looked down at Sara. She didn't seem to be panicking anymore, but she was still very upset. With them? Or with him for his rash action, he knew not which.

To be honest he no longer cared. He simply wanted to spirit the girl away to another location where she would be safe from this whole mess.

"You put on the ring?" He asked, his heart aching as the full ramifications that Elrond had just told him of finally sank in. Sara hesitated for a moment and then slowly nodded. And he closed his eyes for a moment against the feeling of overwhelming despair as he rasped, "Nothing happened? No voices? No headache? No nausea? _No suddenly turning_ _invisible_?"

Again she hesitated before responding to his question. But when she did, he felt as if he had just been run through by a wraith's blade. His strength left him and he slowly sank down to his knees looking as if the very world itself had just fallen to ruins around him.

Sara looked at him with a small frown marring her pretty face as he tried to think beyond the suffocating need to reason with the others. To beg them even- not to allow this madness to continue.

He looked around at his fellow comrades and saw that everyone had a grim look upon their faces. Even the usually cheerful halflings looked unusually grim.

Finally when he was able to trust himself to speak again, he asked in a small voice. "Will you show me? Will you put the ring on and show me that nothing happens?" He needed to know. To have some sort of confirmation. He desperately needed some sliver of hope to cling to that she wouldn't be driven mad or worse by the accursed thing. And the only way to really know was to see it with his own eyes.

She nodded her head slowly and then turned to go get the ring, however he refused to let her go. Instead he asked if one of the others would hand the ring to her.

It was Legolas that did so and then stepped back into place next to Gimli and waited for Sara to place the ring on her finger.

Her small hands were shaking a little bit as she fumbled with it for a moment before finally managing to slip it on. And sure enough, nothing happened. She didn't double over in pain clutching her head. She didn't vanish into thin air while within Aragorn's grip.

She just stood there with the ring on her finger, looking at him as if to ask, 'Can I take this off now?' as he moved his hands from her arms up to her face and framed it in his hands for a moment before nodding his head and finally saying, "I will protect you with my life. My sword, is yours to command. Do you understand?"

She nodded again, though she was frowning a little bit again as he slowly pulled her into a quick hug before releasing her and telling her to remove the ring from her finger. Though it seemed to have no ill effects on her, there was no point in tempting fate by letting her continue to wear it so carelessly.

Rising to his feet, he moved a step or so back from her so that the others could all come and swear their oaths to her as well.

It would see that their journey was to continue with their new ring bearer. That meant that once she had what she would need, they would be setting out again. He only hoped that she could manage to keep up with them.

Once the meeting was adjourned, Aragorn wasted no time in picking Sara up and leaving Elrond and the others while he took the girl back to her room where he would go over some things with her about the mission to destroy the ring and how best to keep her safe as well as what sort of supplies she may need.

He thought that since she was a girl, she would need a fair amount of things more than he and the other would. Things to keep her in good health and such.

Like things for her monthly cycle. She would need something aside from dirty rags to use.

If she wound up with an infection of some sort it would take them all considerably longer to complete the mission. Not only that but if the infection was bad enough, well, it could wind up keeping her bedridden or worse. And that was something that none of them needed since it would make them all sitting ducks for Sauron's forces.

The moment that he finally reached her room and stepped inside, he saw that someone had been kind enough to bring her a tub some more soap and warm water in which to bathe with.

His mind stuttered to a halt for a moment as he tried to decide whether or not he should step outside and maybe go collect their lunch and dinner for the evening since he had no real intent to actually leave her side for very long.

He had initially planned to spend the rest of the day locked in her room with her. Perhaps the night to. Depending upon if she would let him do so, though he knew that it would be pushing the boundaries of both his honor and hers.

If she let him however, he would be sure to sleep in his big, terribly uncomfortable chair. That way no one could call either of their honors into question.

"Have you bathed yet this day?" He asked curiously, hoping that she'd nod. Instead what he got was a small shake of her head, causing him to sigh in a forlorn fashion and slowly set her on her feet as he muttered that he would step out to collect their food for lunch and dinner while she did that.

And then quickly exited the room so that she could do as he had bid her to. He would try to stay gone for at least an hour to give her enough time to wash herself well before he bothered to return.


	7. Chapter 7

An hour or so passed and Aragorn finally returned to Sara's room with a tray piled high with some slices of ham, some fowl, bread rolls, some thick slices of cheese, vegetables, enough soup to feed four hobbits, and two tankards. One of mulled wine, and the other of a relaxing tea sweetened with honey.

Walking into the room, he didn't notice at first that Sara had just finished pulling on her undergarments and stockings and was standing off beside the bed in nothing but _those_. The moment that he set the tray down, and straightened his spine to look around the room, she made a squeaking sound and dove into the small space between the wall and the bed to protect her modesty.

He blinked at her as she peeked over the edge of the bed at him and awkwardly cleared his throat as he reached out and grabbed a long shirt for her to wear over what she currently had on, and tossed it to her while he turned his back to her to allow her a little bit more privacy and mentally berated himself for not knocking first.

He knew better than to walk in of a girl when she wasn't modestly dressed as of yet.

"Sorry! I didn't mean- Forgive me, next time I'll knock." He stammered out slightly as he waited for her to finish getting dressed and to come out so that they could sit down and he could go over everything for her.

He had already figured out that she wouldn't be able to wear any dresses while they were traveling unless they happened upon a city or town along the way and then she would need one or two to help her blend in better.

In the mean time, while he had been absent from her side under the guise of raiding the kitchen, _again_\- he had been sure to speak with Elrond about getting her some shirts, leggings, some well made leather boots, a short sword and several knives that she could hide on her person.

He had also asked to have a black, hooded cloak and some elfish armor similar to what Frodo had been given be made for her.

Elrond had agreed easily before telling him that everything would be seen to. Leaving Aragorn to his own vices once he left him.

He felt her small fingers tug at the hem of his shirt and nearly jumped out of his skin as he turned his head to look at her. She was decently dressed now in an overly large white linen shirt that looked like it should have been a dress, it practically swallowed her whole.

Her damp hair was hanging over her slender shoulder in eye catching crimson waves and soft curls. She looked up at him oddly for a moment, but didn't seem angry with him for accidentally walking in on her while she had only been partially dressed.

He waited for a moment or so to see if she was going to slap him or not since he more or less deserved a good slap for his blunder. Honestly, he knew better than to do something like that with a young lady. He hadn't been raised by dwarves!

Er- wolves. He meant to say _wolves_.

Really, really rude and somewhat oblivious wolves.

However when she made no move to slap him silly, he started to relax a little bit as she left his side for a moment to go collect something from the small bureau across the room. He assumed that she would be getting a brush for her hair since she hadn't brushed it yet as he slowly sat down in his usual chair and pulled out a parchment and a quill and ink for her to use to communicate with him later and watched her patiently until she was done brushing her hair out.

Finally after several minutes of watching her, she finished and set the brush back on the bureau and then moved to sit down on the bed across from him.

"Are you finished with everything?"

She nodded as she neatly folded her hands in her lap and waited for him to go on. "Very well. I will say this much, I've already figured out that you aren't from any country or nation that I've ever heard of. So I am uncertain as to what dangers you know of and what you do not. For instance, what may be dangerous in your homeland- may not be here. Do you understand?" Again she nodded her head, her expression strangely somber as he moved the parchment, ink and quill closer to her and quickly explained their use.

Though from the look on her face, he hadn't needed to explain why they were present. It seemed as if she was already well aware of what he wished her to use them for.

"Very well, let's begin-" Aragorn said before he began explaining her tsk to her in great detail, perhaps even more detail than anyone else had ever bothered to give her thus far. Which would explain a lot. If she had known that she'd be going up against Wraiths and Orcs she probably would have run screaming for the hills like any other person.

Yet Aragorn was strangely pleased by how serious she seemed to take the things that he explained to her. Pausing on occasion to let her scribbled down some questions about each creature and how to defeat it.

However even though he told her how to best beat them if she ever had to fight one- he also stressed that he and the others would be with her solely to prevent her from being caught up in unnecessary struggles and combat and possibly badly injured, maimed or killed.

Because then they would wind up back at square one. Of course he flinched slightly upon saying this to her, especially since it made her sound like she was nothing more than a means to an end.

She wrote down for him not to let that fact bother him overly much. Especially when there were many who would look at her in much the same light. She explained through her writing that it was best for her to get used to be seen in such a way otherwise it would eventually begin to cause her distress.

And her distress could possibly slow them down.

After about an hour or so of speaking of these things together, Aragorn noted that her stomach was beginning to growl a little bit and laughed softly as he told her that they should possibly stop for a while to eat something. They had already missed lunch and the time that had passed thus far was quickly edging towards dinner time.

The two fixed themselves something to eat and sat back down in companionable silence for several moments as they ate a little bit before Aragorn finally let his curiosity get the better of him and decided to ask her some things about her homeland.

"Would you mind telling some about your home? What it was like? What was your life and family like? What dangers you faced daily and such?"

Sara nearly choked on her food because of being startled by his question. She knew that it was only a matter of time before someone figured out that she wasn't from any current lands in middle earth, but she hadn't expected Aragorn to put things together so quickly.

Frankly, she blamed the fact that she didn't exactly blend in on her hair. It had always been such a weirdly vivid and dark red. People had always assumed that she had dyed it and made fun of her as a child. What no one knew was that it was genetic.

Possibly something that skipped several generations in her family.

After all, her great, great, great, great grand something or another had had hair like hers. Or at least that was what the few people whom had still been alive long enough to tell her this, had said.

Aragorn watched her seemed to mull things over for several moments before soundlessly huffing and then setting her plate down so that she could grab the parchment and quill and then looked at him and made a motion with her hand as if to say, _'Well come on ask me something specific.' _

Setting his plate aside, he leaned forward a little bit and asked, "Where are you from?"

She wrote, Earth.

He snorted, thinking that she was making an attempt to be funny and tried again. "What is the name of your homeland?" It was more specific than the prior question. However be fore she wrote down her response she wrote, that there was only a few things that she could tell him about her homeland.

She wanted no wars to spill over from the country she was currently residing in and destroying everyone's peace. Or at least that was all that she could think to write on the subject.

Aragorn read the explanation and _reluctantly_ agreed to the slight condition. Understanding she felt a need to protect her home the same as everyone else did. "Very well. Will you tell me now?"

She didn't nod as she usually did in response to most of his 'yes' or 'no' questions. Choosing instead to begin writing out what she dared.

She was from a large nation called the United States.

They were a land of free people under one 'ruling' government that was made up of officials from every country. Everyone was educated. Male and female alike.

They were taught how to read, write, everyone was taught to do basic and in some cases more complicated mathematics and sciences and other things. She didn't specify what the other things were, but he more or less got the picture.

Everyone had a right to free speech, and such. She mentioned something about something called a 'bill of rights' and even listed them for him.

They had a military. Allies from multiple nations. Armies that ranged in the hundreds of millions or more.

Her father was a former military man. As was her grandfather, her grandmother and so on.

Aragorn would be lying if he didn't find the fact that women were in her homeland's military, _strange_. But he didn't question it overly much and let her continue.

She wrote that while her people were free, there were still many in the country set in the old ways. Many who were racists, bigoted, and _sexist_.

He didn't know what that last word meant, so she had to explain it to him and when she handed him the parchment with the explanation on it, he damn near cringed at the _foolish idiocies_ of the male gender.

She wrote down a little bit more about her country and her people. Her very home and way of life before she bothered to answer his previous question about dangers faced daily.

She wrote down that dangers varied from person to person. Because no one was the absolute same, and everyone was different, meaning different skill sets for both males and females, of varying ages and health's.

She did however mention a few things that she had found to be dangerous. Mostly other people.

_And cars._

They were apparently dangerous too. Though she mentioned having forgotten that fact before she had gotten hit by one. He blinked at that last sentence before moving on to the words, _'Damned murdering pieces of worthless metal.'_ that were written under it.


	8. Chapter 8

Aragorn and Sara stayed up well into the morning hours speaking with one another and attempting to cover everything needed to keep her alive and well during the journey to Mount Doom, before Sara finally curled up on the floor next to him in the early morning hours when he'd been messing with the fire in the fireplace, and fell asleep on him.

Upon realizing that she'd fallen asleep before he could wrap up their conversation and seek out his chair to nap in, he looked down at her for a moment before snorting softly in amusement.

He'd never met a young woman capable of falling asleep on cold stone before. Much less one who was able to stay asleep once she drifted off. Especially since he didn't think that the floor was particularly comfortable.

Shifting ever so slightly so that he could turn his body towards her, he then carefully slipped his arms underneath her body and picked her up. Sara curled up in his arms, her head making a small place against his shoulder to rest upon as he slowly rose to his feet to carry her over to her bed.

"Silly child. If you were in need of sleep, you should have simply said so." He muttered to himself in amusement as he gently laid her down on the bed and watched as she sighed and curled up as he fussed with the covers for a second as he moved back away from the bed to seat himself in his chair.

His mind had been straying here and there to their earlier conversation and all that she had told him.

The country that she had mentioned as her homeland was unlike anything that he had ever heard of before. So much so that if he wasn't so certain that she wasn't lying to him- well, he would think that she were lying to him... But she wasn't. He was as certain of that as he was of the fact that he still lived and breathed.

He knew that it was odd to simply trust her so much, but he couldn't help himself. Something about her simply pulled at his deeper instincts. The very instincts that had _led_ him to become a ranger, were telling him that she wasn't lying. She may have omitted certain truths.

But she had warned him that she couldn't tell him everything from the beginning. Though he no longer knew if it was simply to protect her homeland from the possibility of foreign invasion, or if it were merely more as a measure to protect herself.

He felt that it was more along the lines of protecting herself.

And then there was all of the detailed information. The Bill of Rights, the freedoms that her people enjoyed. The good, and the bad. All of that was much too detailed to simply be the byproduct of an overly active imagination. He was certain of it.

And then there was the last thing that she had told him about her homeland.

_Cars. _

She had mentioned being hit by one. Though she hadn't gone into detail, he had been able to read well between the lines of 'dangerous' and 'damned murdering things'. And he was now fairly certain that he knew how she had come to be so injured when she had appeared here in Rivendell.

His little one had _perished_.

Or at least come as dangerously close to death while in her home country as the deities of her people would allow. And from there, something else had happened causing her to be transported from her homeland, to Rivendell, allowing her to be found by him and the others, healed and now...made to be the ring bearer.

He quietly scrubbed his hands over his face as a sigh left him.

He didn't proclaim to know what the gods had planned, and as grateful as he was that Sara had been found and saved. He really wished that she hadn't become the ring bearer. He just hoped that he and the rest of her protector's/comrade's didn't fail her as they had Frodo.

He must have sat there for an hour more or so before finally succumbing to sleep himself, because when he awakened- Sara was up and dressed in a gold colored velvet dress with white satin trim with her back turned to him and he had the blanket from her bed awkwardly draped over his body.

Shifting slightly in his chair, he cracked an eye open to see what his little one was up to, though it wasn't needed to track her movements nor actions. He had good hearing. And even better honed senses that would have allowed him to track her easily if he had wanted to.

He saw her finish what she was doing and then straighten her spine a bit as she turned her head to glance towards him. He quickly schooled his features and closed his eye again and pretended to be still asleep for a moment as she moved across the room to the bureau.

Upon opening his eye again, he was feeling a little more awake than he had been mere moments ago. He blinked his blue eyes and silently shifted his weight again a little bit so that he was on his feet, the blanket that she had draped over his body was carefully set aside over the back of the chair as he took a moment to stretch before really noticing what she was doing.

Sara was using the bureau's mirror to check the length of her hair with one hand while in the other she clutched a pair of shears.

_She wouldn't_. Aragorn thought to himself as he narrowed his eyes as her back as she took a strand between her fingertips and lifted the shears towards it- only to be stopped when he quickly crossed the room and snatch the damned things from her before she could destroy her pretty hair.

Startled by how quickly and quietly he managed to sneak up on her, she let out a small squeaking sound and turned to face him as he pried the shears from her small hand which she had been subconsciously clutching closed around the handle.

"What did you think you were you doing?" He asked once he finally managed to wrestle the shears away from her and set them down on the bureau as he knelt down in front of her and lightly grasped her slender shoulders in his hands.

She blinked at him and then looked back at the shears and then back at him again as if wondering what the hell his problem was.

When she had woken up this morning and dressed to leave her room, she had met the dark haired elf while she was out. What was his name? Elrond? Yeah that was it, and he had mentioned in passing that while it might not cause much issue with her going on a quest and being a girl and all- she needed to shorten her hair so that if she wound up in a fight with an Orc- it wouldn't be able to grab her by the hair if it was shorter.

She had mulled over what he had suggested for a little bit before going to ask someone for some scissors only to forget for a moment that in mid evil times, they didn't have scissors.

They had...frigging shears.

The mid evil version of scissors.

So she had taken those and had been planning to shorten her hair so that it wouldn't cause any trouble for her or her new friends when she left. She had been looking in the mirror and trying to figure out how much length she wanted to leave behind when she cut it and had finally found out that she wanted a bob cut. Either one that reached a little bit below her shoulders, of one that barely touched her nape with some longer strands that would frame her jawline.

To be perfectly honest, either one would probably be cute.

But as she had started to lift the shears to make the physically altering decision, Aragorn had grabbed her hand and damn near scared her to the point where she wet herself.

How does someone like him move so quickly and quietly anyways? She wondered as she scowled at him for a moment before picking up the parchment that she'd been dragging around with her all morning and then the quill and quickly scribbled, _Long hair isn't very practical for quests. Bad guys can grab it during a fight and use it to maneuver me where they want me and then kill me._

The second that she finished, he looked down at the words and frowned before looking back at her and simply saying, "I'm aware of that. But no woman would willingly want to cut her hair short. People will look upon you as if you are dishonored or something. Is that something that you want?"

_No. But people will likely look at me like that anyways because I'm going to be the only female amongst an all male group. It won't matter to them if we are on a quest. It would be easier to cut my hair like a boy and pretend to be one. No one but us need to know my gender anyways._

"But what if-" He started to ask her what she wished to do if she met someone and fell in love, but then stopped himself from doing so, knowing that pointing out that her pretending to be a male would cause her issues later on. He sighed and slowly released her so that he could get up off of the floor and picked up the shears and looked at them for a moment before he glanced at her. "Very well. How much of the length were you wanting to take off?"

It took her a few tries to explain exactly what she wanted, but in the end he managed to grasp everything alright and even helped her. Though he internally wept for every silken strand that fell to the floor.

Such beauty should never be marred or destroyed.

But it didn't matter, the moment that he finished and stepped back to check his work, his jaw almost dropped when he looked at his little one.

He was very much doubting now that cutting her hair would help her look more like a male. With the long-ish barely shoulder length strands that curled around her jaw and framed her face, she looked beyond head turning. Beyond jaw dropping.

_Beyond stunning_.

Shaking his head as he waited for him to say something, he mentally said a small prayer for the gods to have mercy on them during the quest and after. He was now vey certain that Sara's beauty and exotic looks were going to be a near constant cause of problems for them.

Finally clearing his throat, he managed to choke out, "You look...very nice," Causing her to smile at him as he set the shears aside and then made a weird sound as he placed a hand on one of her small shoulders and then said, "Lets...go show the other's your new hair cut."

She beamed p at him and then took off towards the door, leaving him standing in place for a moment, scrubbing his face with his hands before he then quickly followed suite.

He could hear the hobbits, Gimli and Legolas carrying on already.


	9. Chapter 9

Three more days went by as each of the fellowship prepared for the long and dangerous journey ahead of them. Sara had cut her hair (which had shocked almost all of them but Frodo, Sam and Merry stupid) and later that same day she was asked by Gimli if she knew how to fight since there may come a time when she would probably have to defend herself in one way or another.

And though Aragorn had loathed this fact, he knew that it was inevitable. So when Legolas asked her if she would like the be taught how to use the bow and to sword fight, he had nearly choked on his own tongue. He wanted so badly to tell the elf prince off for even bringing the topic up.

But again, he knew that this was something that she would need to know inevitably.

So after speaking to her at length about some combat training, and then giving her the time and place two days afterward.

Which allowed her just enough time for to manage to get her hands on some clothing that would be a little easier to move in and changed, they all left the palace and entered the forest. Where he and Gimli quietly sat on the sidelines at the designated sparring area a little while after breakfast, and simply _watched_ his little one as Legolas began to instruct her on the use of the bow.

However what none of them had foreseen was that she already had knowledge of what to do with the weapon, and a lethally accurate aim that rivaled Legolas's own.

Needless to say, the elf and Aragorn and Gimli were totally shocked by how easily she picked up the use of the bow. The sword however was a little bit different.

She didn't know what sort of form to use so Legalas was able to beat her at their spar quite easily. Yet it only happened twice before she seemed to come to understand what he was doing and not only beat him the third time around, but the fourth, and the fifth and the sixth.

None of them were terribly sure how long Legolas and Sara had gone at each other, but finally the girl discarded her blade and put her fists up. Which was interesting. Sort of.

But also a little bit insulting to the elf prince.

He was not the kind of man who would recklessly engage in fisticuffs. Yet she wanted him to do so. As if she were trying to tell them each something.

Legolas looked to the two of them and then back at her and shrugged as if to say, 'What now?' As Aragorn slowly got to his feet from where he had seated himself earlier in the day upon a large tree root, and walked over to Sara and motioned for Legolas to go ahead and sit for a while.

The prince may be an elf and have better stamina than an ordinary, but his spar with Sara had winded him quite a bit. Besides, it would be best for him to handle this particular request since he was less likely to _actually_ injure her. He had after all spent the past sixty something years as a ranger, so being able to engage in fisticuffs with Sara without hurting her- while it was a little bit of a trick- could be done nevertheless.

"Alright. If we are to do this, we go till one of us draws first blood. I will not use my fist on you seeing as I am much bigger and stronger as I do not wish to leave bruises or any other markings on you're fair skin. Also I need to know if you can throw a proper punch without breaking or fracturing your wrist." He said as he held one palm out and waited for her to throw a punch.

She blinked at his hand and reluctantly dropped her hands to her side and huffed in annoyance.

"What's wrong? Did you not wish to do this?" He asked, curious to know why she was backing down so suddenly. Sara turned her head to look- no that wasn't right- she was _glaring_ at him. Though there was no true anger or upset behind the look.

Instead she merely turned her back on him and walked over to an old tree several feet away and then took up the same stance as she had mere moments ago and quickly lashed out. Aragorn winced slightly as her fist collided with the trunk of the old tree with enough force that the massive plant _shook_ as a hollow sounding 'Thump' echoed for a moment before the thirty foot monster slowly began to make creaking sounds and tilt until it came to an total stop, leaning to the left of where it's roots were planted.

Legolas slowly slipped from where he had been sitting with a look of utter wide eyed awe on his face as Gimli gaped at her. And Aragorn himself wasn't too very far behind his friends, his eyes were fixed on his little one, giving her his undivided attention.

The first thing that went through his mind, was he couldn't believe what he had just seen. Sara hadn't looked as if she had exerted any true force when she had punched the tree, and yet it was now _leaning_ over a great deal.

The second thing that went through his mind was, that it was impossible for a mere human- nay- a _mere girl_ to do such a thing. It was simply impossible. And yet...Sara had.

Sara just stood there with her head tilted back some, a low whistle leaving her lips as she simply stared at what she had just done, before deciding to examine her hand for any damages. Her knuckles were red, not raw looking or swollen nor did they have cuts and bruises.

There were no broken bones, even the skin itself wasn't all that damaged. And on top of all of that, she barely felt any aches or pains from what she had just done. Which was peculiar since usually she would have had broken bones and felt a considerable amount of pain.

She would imagine that with the right pair of gloves, and some practice, her new physical abilities could be quite dangerous against an Orc or something. After all, the enemy would never believe her to be capable of doing them any real damage.

They would take one look at her, deem her weak and do what all predators do. They would attempt to kill the weakest of their prey. Not knowing that she was capable of doing them any true damage, they would walk right into the trap that she set for them.

Still...as cool as it was to almost be able to knock a thirty something foot tree down or...over with so little effort- she was still sort of trying to work out the kinks in her new discovery. Especially since she wasn't sure of what else she could do.

Finally, someone recovered from the shock enough to say something. It was mostly stammered out, but she still recognized Gimli's attempt at eloquence when she heard it. "What the- How did- What the devil was that?!"

"That is a good question my friend." Legolas said next, deciding to finally add his own opinion. Whereas Aragorn was merely looking at her strangely, and...saying a whole lot of nothing.

Typical. Sara thought to herself as she walked over to a root sticking up out of the ground and seated herself on it while her new friends decided to check the tree out and see if it wasn't some sort of fluke or something that had caused it to tilt over like it had upon being hit by her.

"The roots are healthy and sound," Legolas said after using a small knife to peel the skin back from several different roots all around the tree. "No hint of illness, or pests," Next he moved on to the trunk, and pressed an ear against it and used his fingertips to drum against it's side so that he could listen to it for a few moments before finally pulling his head away and saying clearly, "The tree is still firmly rooted, healthy and strong. The soil here is thick and slightly hard, Sara should not have been able to force it almost to it's side with a mere blow like that."

"And yet she did." Gimli stated as he looked away from the tree and glanced at her with a small frown before saying, "What do you think it means?"

It was Aragorn who finally spoke up this time. His blue eyes glittering with some unnamed emotion as a sly smile split his handsome face. "It means that our young friend already carries half of an arsenal on her person. This would be most hazardous to our enemy. Especially if she were underestimated in a fight."

"Which she will be."

"Aye," Aragorn said as he walked over to her and bent down some and held out his hands and whispered softly, "Let me see your hand." He needed to know the cost of such strength, for surely a human could not wield such power without a cost of some kind. And it would not do for the girl to wind up tearing herself to pieces internally during a fight and winding up crippled.

Sara reluctantly extended her hand so that he could see it and bristled slightly when he grabbed her wrist and turned her hand this way and that as the other two slowly made their way over to them.

"There isn't even a scratch on her!" Gimli nearly shouted in surprise. No doubt he had expected her to have broken something as well.

"Remarkable."

"Indeed." Was all Aragorn said as he released her wrist and then smiled at her before saying sternly, "Never do that again unless you are disarmed and alone, and only when facing one opponent. Do you understand?"

She nodded her head in agreement as the man stood back to his full height and then gently took her small hand in his and tugged her from her perch while saying, "It's been a little while since we came out here, we should be heading back now."

The other two said nothing, merely started walking behind him as he gently pulled her along.


	10. Chapter 10

The moment that they were back within the palace walls and got cleaned up and changed into clean clothing so that they could go and seek out food and drink, Aragorn, and Sara were making their way into the dinning hall where dinner was about to be served when they both spied the hobbits.

All four of them. Sitting in a little cluster together, three of whom were all staring over Perigrins shoulder at something when Sara stopped walking beside him and stiffened slightly where she stood. Aragorn looked back at her for a moment, wondering what was wrong with her when all of a sudden he, she, the hobbits, Gimli and Legolas and the few other elves in the dinning hall were all startled to hear some softly playing music accompanied by someone singing sweetly.

** _When the stars shine bright through the engine's trail,_ **

** _And the dust of another world drops behind. _ **

** _When my ship is free of the open sky, it's a damn good day to my way of mind._ **

** _There's a barren planet that you never can leave, there's a rocky valley where we lost a war!_ **

** _There's a cross once hung around a soldier's neck- _ **

**_There's a man's faith died on Serenity's floor_**.

The song was _lovely_ to Aragorn's ears, the music accompanying it soft and slow. To be perfectly frank, both were enchanting to the man. However Sara just seemed to gape at the hobbits in horror for a moment and then looked at Aragorn through wide eyes. Almost as if she were upset by the song for some reason.

He frowned because he didn't understand why she was acting so strangely all of a sudden and then grunted as she quickly brushed by him, damned near knocking him over as she went and ran over to the small group of huddled halflings and began tapping them on their shoulders, startling them until they seemed to realize that she was there to put a _stop_ to whatever was going on.

"Oh! Miss Sara, hello there. I hope that you don't mind overly much since we were a little bit curious about you- so I stole these from Gandalf and- _Hey_!" Peregrin greeted and then began to explain before what was in his hand was yanked out of it causing him to yelp in surprise as she held whatever it was that was still singing, up and looked it over with a frown before looking back at him in a silent command to make the singing stop.

Never quite the sharp one, even by hobbit standards, Sam was the one who silenced the music and song for her. Looking very apologetic as he did so.

"Sorry for the trouble miss. We was just curious is all."

Sara simply huffed quietly and then nodded her head and then grasped his hand in hers and used a fingertip to spell out, _'Ask first.' _Causing the hobbit to blush slightly and mutter, 'yes miss' under his breath before turning to the Merry and Peregrin and saying, "You should both apologize." And then moving to sit back down next to Frodo who was quietly laughing at them.

His blue eyes looked darker than they had been in the past months in color, and the sparkled like sapphires as he bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing at both Merry and Peregrin aloud as Sara turned the full weight of her stare to them.

"Sorry, but i-it was too good an opportunity to pass up Miss." Merry said looking more than a little bit abashed. Whereas Peregrin wasn't the least bit repentant, even after Merry reached out and elbowed him in the stomach and gave him a glare.

"Ouch! What did you do that for?"

"You know why, you fool of a Took! Those are Miss Sara's personal property, at least have the decency to be ashamed of the fact that you took them. After all, she may have been looking high and low for those for all we know."

"Oh. Well when you put it like that, I'm very sorry for causing such possible distress Miss Sara. It'll not happen again." Peregrin said, still not the least bit apologetic. Which was why Sara decided to teach him a small lesson and reached out and grabbed something off of his plate and held it up where he could see it and then quickly stuffed it in her mouth. Causing Frodo to finally bust out laughing, while Sam hid his laughter behind a hand, while Peregrin's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before he started raising all kinds of hell.

"Hey! That was mine!"

"I think that was the point Peregrin." Merry said while trying to contain his own laughter.

"Point or not, you don't steal food from a hobbit! That's just_ cruel_!"

Sara swallowed what was in her mouth and then reached out again, much faster this time since the hobbit was watching her like a hawk now, and snatched a piece of bread and a small slice of cheese. Causing him to bare his teeth at her and growl as she popped them both into her mouth and smiled at him as the other hobbits all laughed at him as he snatched up his plate of uneaten food and quickly climbed over the table to the opposite side and glared at her.

Aragorn watched his little one deal with the mischievous halflings with a bemused expression on his face as he seated himself not too far away and appeared to be waiting for his little one to join him when she finally finished teasing Peregrin, much to the amusement of Frodo, Merry and Sam- and finally decided to make her way over to his side again and carefully seated herself next to him.

"That was quite the show Sara. No doubt Peregrin will think much harder on his actions in the future if it means having his food stolen from him." He sounded amused by her actions against the hobbit, and yet at the same time he looked down at her small hand, clutching whatever it was that the hobbits had been huddled over. His expression was curious though he had yet to actually ask her anything.

Rolling her eyes at him, she held the item out to him and let him see it.

It was one of the pictures that she's had in her wallet when she had left home the same day that she'd been hit by the car. In the picture she was twelve years old, her once straight crimson hair hung down to her shoulders and she was dressed in one of her favorite outfits and had a little bit of blush and lip gloss on. And she was singing.

Mal's song.

Her tastes in music haven't changed much even since then. But that was neither here nor there.

The only reason that she hadn't burned the photo as of yet was because before things got bad- it was the few reminders that she had of how life with her family had once been. The picture itself had belonged to her father. Because he was the one who had always liked to hear her voice.

Aragorn looked up at her and slowly reached out to take the...colored portrait of her as a child? And studied it carefully. She looked far younger than she was now, her eyes were more innocent, her smile was brighter and not dimmed by time or cruelty or sadness.

He would have liked to know the child that once she had been, he would have bet that she spread joy wherever she went at that age. However since that was an impossibility, he contented himself with knowing the young woman that she had become and was _still_ changing into.

Asking politely if he could listen to the rest of the music and song that the halflings had been engrossed in before she had stopped them, he was gifted with an embarrassed blush from her that made him wish to tease her endlessly as he waited patiently for her permission.

And once it was given, he certainly wasted no time.

The rest of the song was as lovely as it was sad and defiant. The last lyric of it, made him smile even as he handed it back to her. There was so much truth in the words of those lyrics.

So, so much. And if he had anything to say about it- that would never change.


	11. Chapter 11

Later that evening after dinner, Aragorn sat in his chair in Sara's room, staring at her as she brushed her damp hair after bathing again. His mind kept straying to various things. Snippets of conversation, Sara's actions and reactions since becoming the new ring bearer, her training session with himself and Legolas and Gimli earlier today.

His mind was pouring over the small details that she had given here and there, whether she seemed aware of it or not. Trying to figure out just what exactly she was now.

It wasn't normal for a young maiden who was barely grown to look like a small child, though he supposed that that was a camouflage of some sort to cause others who would normally harm her to refrain from doing so. After all, honorable men would never harm a mere child. Much less a female one.

Her ability to heal was outstanding too. So much so that after her earlier display of strength this day, he wasn't all that sure what to think if one was honest.

He wanted to know more. But he wasn't all that certain if she herself was aware of any of the answers that he wanted. After all, he had noticed for a brief moment when she had struck the tree and it had began to lean to the side- her expression had been one of utter shock and surprise, though she had quickly masked it behind an expression of calm indifference.

Which led him to believe that she hadn't been trying to show them anything, but do something along the lines of an experiment to see if she could or couldn't do what she had done.

But then, what exactly had she been thinking when she had done it?

He was at least partially certain that she knew how to fight, the way that she had handled her weapon's training was simply too quick. In fact she had picked those up eerily quickly. And she had handled the weapons smoothly. Like a seasoned veteran.

And then there was the fisticuffs stance that she'd taken, it was different than the usual used in middle earth, but it was more than a little bit apparent that she knew how to use her hands when absolutely needed.

Which pleased him greatly since he would be teaching her in the coming days to use that unusual physical strength of hers as an asset in the coming days until it was time to leave. Whereas her healing lesson's that he needed to speak to some of the elven healers about to see if one of them would agree to teach her, would be divided between himself and one of them.

He was certain that having her know how to heal herself and others on this quest would make things a bit easier for them should someone become badly injured.

With the right person to teach her what was needed, she could very well save lives, one of which could even turn out to be her own.

"What would you think of using what little time we have left here to train your body and mind? I could teach you hand to hand and some weapons, though I doubt that you'll really need to be taught after how you handled yourself today. And I would also like to help you learn the healing arts along with one of the elves in the palace. It would come in handy on the quest and could save not only your life but another's."

She looked at him for a second before signing that it would be a good idea. She didn't want to leave such talents to go to waste. It would be better for everyone when they left, if she was more knowledgeable and better equipped to handle whatever situation may arise.

At least that way if she got separated from them, injured or fell ill, she could draw on what she had already known and what she had just learned to help her survive and keep from slowing them down.

Or at least, that was what she believed would be best.

"I will speak to someone about teaching you about healing sometime on the morrow then." Aragorn said gently as she finally finished brushing her hair and set the brush aside so that she could turn to face him again as he asked, "What would you like to do now to pass the time until you retire?"

She shrugged, not knowing what she wanted to do.

In the short time that she had been in this strange new place she had learned various things. Many of which were pleasing to her and others, not so much.

1) Men didn't like girls who dressed and acted as boys.

They felt that there was something wrong with them for doing so and went out of their way to bully, beat and belittle said female.

Already she had had at least_ two_ such encounters with several elven soldiers since she had cut her hair. Both times she had been debased and mortified, however when she had tried to ignore the males- they had physically attacked her. It was in some small part how she had found out that she was stronger than the average girl.

Both altercations hadn't ended well for the men in question since she had punched one of them through one of the walls. And as she had gawked at what she had down in horror, the other had wasted no time in drawing his weapon and attempting to skewer her with it before she had either broken something, like an arm or leg- or had simply knocked him unconscious. Something that she'd had to be very careful about all things considered.

And though those things had happened while she was on her own, ignorance was bliss. And she wasn't willing to tell anyone of her new friends about any of those things.

The few soldiers that hadn't actually attacked her seemed to think that she was something unnatural. And as such, they were not beyond their rights to put her in her proper place. What they had seemed to have forgotten was that she _was_ something _unnatural_.

Someone who should be dead, yet lived. Someone who should be back home, yet was in a midievil-like world that was so drastically different from her own.

Some were nice to her. Kind and compassionate even. Like Aragorn and the others that she had met thus far. Recognizing that she wasn't like other females of this world. While others...were not.

Others were spiteful, hateful and just downright _cruel_ and didn't care a whit that she was from another world or that she was different from other females. _What isn't understood is destroyed._ Seemed to be not only the mentality of those people. But their motto and words to live by as well.

2) Women were believed to be inferior to men.

Speaking one's mind, being educated, and so on- wasn't allowed unless the people around you were particularly exceptional. Which was why she liked Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and the hobbits so much. They didn't seem to mind her differences when compared to others all that much, despite the fact that she was fairly certain that there would be a few times in the near future when they would begin sticking to the typical male roles.

Especially when they began to travel. It would likely be the best way to keep her out of unnecessary trouble. Until then though, they treated her as if she were one of them, and welcomed her and her oddities with open arms.

And she _adored_ them all for it.

There were other things of course, both positive and negative. All too many to mention in one breath- that she was constantly having to remind herself of.

Manners were a big thing.

It didn't matter if you were male or female. You were to be polite and civil to everyone no matter how annoying, unless you wanted others to think you had been raised by feral/rabid squirrel's or something. Those who forgot their manners...were treated like heathens.

And while she had been more or less raised by heathens, she hadn't wanted to grow up acting like them. So she's had a few of her friends drill some manners into her head until she could pass for fairly lady like.

"Sara?" She heard Aragorn's voice mere moments before she felt his large palm touched the side of her face, startling her out of her thoughts to find him on his knees before her with a concerned expression on his handsome face. "Little one, what thoughts consume your mind this evening?"

She quickly signed that it was nothing. Though he didn't look terribly convinced, he slowly backed off. Letting his hand slip away and fall to his lap as he studied her slightly from underneath his dark lashes.

His little one was hiding something.

What it was, he couldn't say. But the fact that she was attempting to hide something from him left him feeling somewhat hurt.

Did she not think that she could trust him? He wondered as he watched her carefully for a moment or so before exhaling and slowly rising up off of the floor while telling her that it was growing late. She should rest.

She blinked up at him for a moment and then frowned.

What the hell was his problem all of a sudden? Sara wondered curiously as he left the room.


	12. Chapter 12

The next morning was especially busy for Sara, the moment that Aragorn awoke from his sleep, he then woke her by gently shaking her awake and then leaving the room so that she could use the chamber pot and then dress while he went and spoke to one of the palace healers about starting her lessons a little later today.

Sara sort of drug her feet a little bit but she still managed to finish up what she needed before Aragorn returned. And once he did, he was carrying a small drawstring satchel and he had the hobbits, Gimli and Legolas in tow.

Apparently the three men were eager to see what she could do and the hobbit's merely wished to see what the fuss was about. Or something to that effect.

So once the lot of them had collected her, they all headed out of the palace and into the forest.

However, on their way out...she couldn't help but notice a small company of elven soldiers, five in all, watching them with more than a little bit of interest and _knew_ then and there that the group- one of whom she recognized as the guy that she had punched through one of the walls about a week ago- would be causing more trouble soon enough.

The way that the hair on the nape of her neck prickled and stood up told her that she was the target. She had made herself so, by beating the men that had attacked her.

After all, what medieval man with any sort of combat training would allow himself to be bested by a mere female? She supposed that what she had done to them was humiliating and was insulting to their honor, and to the years that they had spent working to become soldiers.

But they had started shit that they shouldn't have, and while she was a bit sorry for humiliating them as she had- if they started shit with her again, she'd damn well end it.

She was no one's whipping boy.

The moment that she and the others finally reached the same spot that they had used the day before for sparring, Aragorn had set aside the satchel that he'd brought so that it would be out of the way while the others all sat down to observe the ranger as he worked.

"Alright, today I'm going to teach you how to fight hand to hand before we move on to anything else. While doing so, I want you to show me what you already know of hand to hand. Now after yesterday, I, Gimli and Legolas are already aware of some of your abilities with weapons and such. But we need to make sure that you know more. So this first spar with be to access your skill. Afterwards, we'll sit down for a bit and eat what I brought for our breakfast, and then Legolas and myself with start training you a bit more in depth with some weapons. Understand?"

Sara nodded her head as he gave her an almost freakishly gleeful looking smirk that nearly had her bristling as he shifted his body into a fighting stance and then motioned for her to come at him.

She was reluctant at first, and he must have sensed that. Because he didn't hesitate to close the distance between them and try to knock her on her ass.

Try of course was the operative word.

Now she knew, and had had it drilled into her head, even in her world- that when fighting- hesitation could get you killed. However she believed that Aragorn was mistaking her hesitation to strike him out of concern for his well being, for hesitation to defend herself.

He was wrong.

And she made a point to show him the error in his thoughts with a well placed blow or two before she turned as she snagged one of his arms and used the momentum behind his latest attempt to land a blow, to toss him over her shoulder so that he hit the ground several feet away on his back.

And lay there for a moment or so, both stunned by the ease in which she had managed to escape harm a well as throw him like she had. However he was quick to shake it off, get to his feet and come at her again.

They sparred like this for over an hour in a half, he attacking, and she defending, when during one of their short breathers, she noted a gleam of silver out of the corner of one of her eyes and missed her chance to knock Aragorn on his ass again when an arrow came out of nowhere and almost hit her.

After that, it only took a split second for the others to realize what was happening and the world around her devolved into chaos. Aragorn grabbed her and quickly placed her behind him as he drew his sword while Legolas was up on his feet returning fire.

Gimli and the hobbit's were running this way and that trying to avoid being hit by the flurry of arrows that had followed the first one.

While Sara was trying to determine which direction the arrows were mainly coming from. Because it wasn't just one direction, they seemed to be coming from two other directions too.

Finally Legolas managed to take out one of the archers. His scream of pain were so loud that a shiver went down Sara's spine mere seconds before Sara darted over to where the hobbit's were hiding and took the sword from Merry's hand before then running off into the thick foliage to the side of their hiding place so that she could circle around and deal with the fools attacking her and her friends.

It was easier than she had thought it would be.

She would probably never know how exactly she had managed to sneak up on the elves attacking her friends, but she did. And when she finally reached them, she made quick work of crippling them so that they couldn't run away and hide themselves to escape punishment. She also made sure to get rid of the bows by cutting the strings the second that they dropped them.

Of course she was cut and nicked a few times by some of Legolas's arrows since he wasn't aware of the fact that she was gone and out in the foliage where the attacks had been coming from.

She'd likely get yelled at for leaving Aragorn's side later on.

But for now, she decided to sit down across from 'wall guy' who had been the last to fall to her stealthy attacks, and merely _glared_ at him with barely contained rage as he spat oaths and threats at her. This of course was how the others found her. Sitting on a small-ish tree root with Merry's bloody sword in hand, dirt and spatters of elven blood staining her hands, clothes, face and hair while her own wounds bled and mixed with it.

She counted at least three, maybe four arrow wounds.

One had split her cheek, another had nicked the side of her neck, and yet another had torn through her shirt, and split open the skin of her side.

That was the deepest wound that she had and would likely require stitching. She wrinkled her nose a little bit as she thought of the possible scene that she would make when someone pulled out a needle. It was almost laughable really. That she could take on people who were armed to the teeth and quite dangerous, however she balked at the thought of being stitched up.

"Sara!" Legolas was the first to find her, as he broke through the dense greenery to see why the attacks had stopped as quickly as they had begun. The moment that the hobbits had began shouting that she was gone, he, Aragorn and Gimli had split up to search her out.

Seeing her sitting there, with a sword in her hand, covered in blood spatter and various bleeding wounds. His heart nearly stopped beating within his chest. Especially when he spied one of Elrond's soldiers across from her on the ground, bleeding.

A bow and quiver of arrows lay but a few feet away from the man as Legolas quickly shouted out, "I've found her!" And then moved over to her so that he could drop to his knees on the forest floor before the small girl and assess her injuries as moments later the hobbits, Peregrin and Sam joined them. Quickly followed by Merry, who didn't look non too pleased with her for running off with his sword at first, but once he got a good look at the damage that she had done to the elf that had attacked them, he lightened up considerably.

Next to join them was Aragorn and Gimli, both of whom had found the other soldier and began to question him as to what the hell had possessed him and his friends to attack them.

They had been shocked to hear that Sara had gotten into an altercation with some of them and they had merely wanted to pay her back for their humiliation. The man had gone on to rant a little bit about what they had been planning to do to her when Gimli had had to knock him out to keep Aragorn from killing him.

Aragorn was...understandably, and inarguably angry and upset about what had just happened.

Perhaps even more then the rest of them since he was very attached and _protective_ of the girl. Not because she was now the ring bearer, but because his keener instincts told him that she was someone _worthy_ of his deep emotional attachment and protectiveness.

Why, Gimli wouldn't be all that surprised if in a few short years (as long as none of them perished trying to destroy the ring, of course) Sara would probably be wearing Aragorn's household colors, his ring, and would probably even have a few of his children clinging to her skirt.

The ranger was, after all, on the edge of falling for the girl.

Even if he didn't seem aware of it, Gimli was not so blind. Nor was Legolas, though the princeling had yet to truly define the sort of relationship that the two had.

Hell he doubted that even the girl was fully aware of it either.

The moment that they finally reached the spot where the others were, Aragorn's eyes widened as he took in the sight of his little one covered in blood, and wounded. Though the wounds were mostly superficial, it did nothing to ease the ranger's want to both go and push Legolas aside so that he could tend to her and his need to also destroy the fools that had dared to attack them.

No- that wasn't right. They had _dared_ to attack what was _his_.

Fury towards the man filled him, the feeling was so strong that it was almost suffocating. And if not for the fact that they were to be dealt with by Elrond, then he would have killed them both. Instead he merely shot the elf a look that promised unimaginable pain even for an immortal, and made his way over to his little one and gently pushed Legolas aside so that he could collect her in his arms.

Their training for today would be cut short for the rest of today.

Right now he needed to take Sara back to the palace and take care of her injuries since it didn't look as if her healing ability was going to help her with them right now.

"Legolas, Gimli, collect the injured elves and take them before Elrond and tell him of what happened here. Merry, take back your sword. The rest of you, return to where we were and grab the satchel of food and other things that I brought and bring it to Sara's room when you return to the palace. I'm taking Sara and going ahead." Aragorn said as he leaned down and carefully picked his little one up so that he could cradle her in his arms, and then quickly strode away.


	13. Chapter 13

**_Fury_**.

Chillingly unbridled, coursed through his veins as he carried Sara back towards the palace, his eyes occasionally straying to the bloody wounds and the spatter on her clothing and skin. His little one had been injured. How dare she have run off like that! He seethed as he reached the bottom of the stairway inside of one of the palace doors.

Didn't she know or care that she could have been accidentally killed by Legolas's arrows?! He wondered as he took the steps two at a time, in an effort to reach his destination that much sooner.

Sara shifted ever so slightly in his hold, and laid her head on one of his shoulders and let her eyes close for a moment. She could feel how angry Aragron was. His rage was practically rolling off of him in great suffocating waves.

And for the moment, there was nothing that she could do to calm him any. She felt far too drained to bother. Besides, from his point of view, she probably deserved _some_ of his anger and rage.

She did after all have an important job to do, whether she wished it or not was never really relevant. She was the ring bearer for the ring of power. It was her job to destroy it before the world fell into darkness.

And by doing what she had done earlier, taking out the elves attacking her and the others- without any help or anyone's knowledge... She had proven to Aragorn and the others to some degree that she could take care of herself, but at the same time, she had also proved to them that unless she was watched _carefully_, she was more than a little bit likely to get herself killed trying to protect her friends.

Which was unacceptable for several reasons.

Not all of them, she knew.

Finally Aragorn reached her room and pushed the door open and then slipped inside and slammed it closed before making his way over to the bed and carefully set her down on it and then began going around the room, collecting various items so that he could mix some herbs together to place on her injuries to keep her from getting an infection, once they were cleaned.

Once he had everything together, he placed it all on the bureau and began to mix a little bit of water from the tankard that was always kept filled with fresh water by the maids, daily, with some herbs that he usually kept on him for small injuries.

Her worked quickly and quietly when he heard the faint sound of the mattress shifting on the bed, indicating that Sara was slowly getting up when he finally decided to speak, _"Do. Not. Dare."_ His cold furious tone echoed loudly within the room even to his own ears.

He didn't trust his little one to come to him just yet. He was far to angry to allow it.

The room fell silent again and he went back to mixing the herbs and water, making sure that everything was a fine paste before he then set it aside and turned to take care of Sara only to find her missing. He blinked at the empty space where she had once been and let out a loud growl of annoyance before he went tearing out of the bedroom to find her.

By the gods, when he got his hands on her...he would see to it that she didn't walk right for at least a week for not only what she had done earlier but for daring to leave his side afterwards.

Storming out of the bedroom, hell bent on tracking his little one down, he didn't bother looking in the immediate area, if he had, he might have noticed a small boot clad foot slowly being pulled up and tucked into the small hiding place behind the stone gargoyle that was above her door.

He spent _hours_ looking for her to no avail.

He even went to the others once the elves that had attacked them had been dealt with by Elrond. And when he had learned of their punishment, he had snarled at the man whom had partially raised him as his own son. His fury and frustration bleeding together to the pint where he couldn't think straight anymore.

Exiling the ones that had attacked them was a bad move on Elrond's part, in his opinion.

They had committed treason. Attacked people of influence and power who were guests in the elven lord's home. Who was to say if they wouldn't try attacking Sara and the rest of them again? It was obvious that they held something against the girl.

And if they did try attacking them all again, who's to say that Sara nor someone else wouldn't be seriously injured or worse. What if next time, Sara or someone else perished?

Finally in the early morning hours, after tearing the entire palace apart searching for Sara, he returned to the room to find her curled up on her bed sound asleep.

Growling softly at the spark of renewed anger that he felt kindling within him, he walked over to her and glowered down at her for a moment before his eyes noted that her injuries had been tended to while he had been tearing the place apart.

_The little_\- His hands clenched tightly at his sides, his fingernails biting into his palms until he felt blood welling from the pressure.

She had no idea what she was doing to his self control, did she? He wondered as he sighed because he didn't want to wake her simply to shout at her for disappearing on him. He decided that it would be best due to the lateness of the hour to wait and to punish her sometime on the morrow and seated himself in his usual chair and glared at her for a majority of the morning until the sun began to rise.

He stayed that way even while Sara gradually began to awaken.

He wasn't quite as angry and frustrated with her as he had been yesterday. Not unreasonably so anyways. Even so, his little one had much to answer for. And he intended for her to begin the very moment that she opened her eyes, which was looking more and more like it would be any moment now.

She rolled over onto her side, facing him and blinked her green eyes at him before bothering to stretch a little bit as she pushed herself upright a bit, her eyes never moving away from his person the whole time. It was almost as if she knew that he needed answers from her and would wait forever if he had to just to get them.

"You did a very foolish thing yesterday," Was all he said at first before carefully tacking on, "What would we have done if you had been seriously injured or killed?" The more accurate question he should have asked, the one that went unsaid between them was _'What would I have_ _done_ _if your were seriously injured or killed?' _

She said nothing to him. Nothing in her defense nor anything in defense of her actions.

There just seemed to be nothing that she could say at this point to pacify him.

"Well? Have you no care for your own life? Your own well being? What is the point of protecting someone who will force us to fail at our task with her senseless and careless actions?" He narrowed his eyes at her a little bit as he waited for some sort of response from her, but still got nothing.

Finally having enough, he got up and walked over to the bed and wrapped the fingers of one hand around her slender throat and shoved her back so that she toppled over and lay partially trapped underneath him.

The move was meant to be threatening.

Yet...yet he undid that threat by stroking the soft flesh of her jugular with his thumb as she lay half pinned under his heavy body, her green eyes blinking up at him is shock. But not fear or hatred nor anger.

"You've no idea how precious you have become to us, do you?" He said the words so very softly, as if to hide his own tormented feelings for her. But she somehow knew what he was speaking of almost instinctively. Or perhaps she figured it out when his hand strayed from her throat to her face where he gently traced her slightly parted lips with his fingertips.

"You are sixteen," She would have corrected him and mentioned that she was now seventeen since her birthday was only a few days ago. But for some reason that she couldn't begin to explain, she couldn't seem to breathe right then. Her breath was trapped somewhere between her lips and her lungs. "Still very much a child despite how old, intelligent and world weary you seem. And I-I would not be able to live with myself if anything happened to you because you ran off and got hurt instead of staying by my side where I _need_ you." He slowly leaned down until barely a hairs breath separated their faces.

He couldn't help himself anymore.

He needed to have a small taste of her. And he would have- If her bedroom door hadn't swung open at that exact moment and Merry walked in excited to get started with today's training.

Both Sara and Aragorn turned their heads to look at the hobbit as he froze up and seemed to finally notice that he had just walked in on something that he probably shouldn't have as Aragorn quickly separated himself from her and shouted several elven oaths at the Halfling as he grabbed him by the back of his shirt and all but dragged him outside flailing and calling for help.


	14. Chapter 14

There were moments during his short acquaintance with the halflings where Aragorn could have either _gleefully_ thrown Merry and Peregrin both from the palace battlement. Or at the very least skinned them alive. And sadly right now was such a time. The two were making right nuisances of themselves.

The blasted hobbits had been gossiping non stop since Merry had walked in on him almost kissing Sara earlier!

It was barely afternoon and already he had heard little snippets of rumors beginning to spread about he and Sara and the somewhat questionable nature of their relationship. As if their relationship- or the lack there of was really anyone's business but theirs.

Still it upset him.

And he wasn't the only one growing angry either.

Leolas, Gimli, Sam and Frodo were as well. And while Peregrin and Merry may not have _meant_ for anything malicious or slanderous about Sara's reputation in nature to happen due to their gossiping like blue haired biddies, it didn't change the fact that since Peregrin had saved Merry's life from being terminated by him this morning before training- Aragron and the others had heard several of Elronds elven soldiers, some maids and a few others refer to Sara as his 'relief wench'.

Why three of them had even had the outright audacity to call his little one a fucking whore to her face, right in front of him and the others!

And while he and the others had been quick and steadfast in defending her honor both physically and verbally. Sara had merely ignored the lot of them and wandered off acting as if she were deaf, dumb, and _completely blind_ to what was going on around her.

Which only served to throw oil on the proverbial fire since many of the elf's present in the palace were either of noble birth or servants and soldiers that simply _hated_ being ignored.

So much so that upon her return to part of the group, Gimli had witnessed one maid purposely shove his Sara into the nearest wall with enough force to force the breath from her lungs and leave her gasping for air and then walk away laughing.

She hadn't been overly hurt by the experience, but after Gimli had reported what had happened in great detail to the rest of them- Merry and Peregrin had had suffered through having their ears boxed in retaliation by Sam. And a incredibly stern lecture from both Frodo and Gimli.

However the harassment wouldn't and didn't seem to just stop there.

From the moment that Sara went to clean herself and change her clothing from the shirt and leggings that she used to train in, to a dress and then rejoined them in the dinning hall to eat something for lunch- Males have been approaching his little one almost non stop since the fellowship had first sat down.

Some merely looked at her and snickered, while others had been so bold as to outright ask for a taste of what was between her legs. Causing Aragorn to growl and glare menacingly at the men as he and the rest of the fellowship tried to eat their lunch in peace.

"If one more elf walks up to Lady Sara..._I'm going to kill them_." Aragorn said after a moment or so.

"Hn. That actually might not be such a bad idea." Gimli commented, winching slightly as he recalled the maid shoving the girl.

"Normally I would disagree, but after seeing how they seem to enjoy harassing Lady Sara- I believe that I agree with your course of action as well." Legolas said in a dry tone on the other side of the dwarf, where he was seated. His stare was locked on the growing group of people looking towards Sara and whispering quietly amongst themselves.

The elf prince was beginning to become increasingly worried for young Sara's safety and well being. Not only because she was the current ring bearer, but because she had become a good friend to him in the short time that he had spent in her presence. And his people, could be petty and cruel in both deed and word- outnumbered her here.

"We may have to move up our plans to leave on our quest. I fear that it is no longer safe for Lady Sara in Rivendell." Legolas said as he looked away from the group for a moment so that he could see Aragorn's expression.

Which was downright murderous at the moment before the man looked away from the growing crowd of idiots and simply nodded his head in understanding. As much as he hated to admit it, Legolas was right.

The elf's were up in arms against Sara. Despite the fact that she was merely a child, and unable to truly defend herself just yet. In fact the more he listened, the more it seemed as if everything being said ran along the lines of what those elven soldiers had spat at her after they had attacked them all in the forest.

Blue eyes flickered to Sara's small form sitting next to him, looking for any signs of distress. He found no real distress in her body language nor her expression. But he could make out a little bit of irritation from the way that she occasionally frowned or scowled in between bites of her food.

_So she isn't as unbothered as I thought she was. But if that is so, why does she not act? _He wondered to himself as he subconsciously reached out a ran his blunt fingernails through her soft, short silken hair. Noting that it was still somewhat damp from her latest bath.

She paused eating for a moment to look at him, her pale green eyes blinking at him as he smiled warmly at her and tried to think of something comforting to say, but couldn't quite articulate his thoughts enough to manage to say anything of a comforting nature. What did one really say when they were partially responsible for the ruining of their good reputation?

It will be over soon? Pay no mind to the jealous fool?

No- those didn't sound right and even if they did- he wouldn't dare to say them. It would be as if he were in some way belittling the severity of the situation.

Sara didn't seem to mind though, she simply leaned over a bit until her shoulder was touching his side and let him wrap an arm around her for a few moments before straightening up again and going back to her food while Sam's lecture to Merry and Peregrin slowly got distinctively louder.

"Do you have no shame at all for the trouble that you two have caused poor Sara? Merry, your foolishness has called her virtue into question! And not just hers but Aragorns as well! I don't know what you did to upset Aragorn so much this morning when he had you dangling by your ankle over the wall- but frankly I don't care. The two of you gossiping like a couple of wenches has caused everyone trouble. More than that it has caused Miss Sara trouble! You both owe her and Aragorn an apology!"

"Well said Sam," Gimli almost shouted as he banged his fists on the table twice, the action of doing which, drew far more attention to the lot of them that anyone needed at the moment. "I suggest you both start with Lady Sara when you apologize. Or else Aragorn will not stop at merely dangling one of you over the wall this time."

Merry looked at Sara for a moment. As did his friend.

However where Merry seemed to know that he was in the wrong, Peregrin was steadfast in his Took-like thinking that he had done nothing wrong to slight the girl. Much less Aragorn. After all, it wasn't his fault that there were people all over the place, listening in on his sort of private conversations with Merry.

Especially about such exciting gossip and news.

Personally speaking, he was rather happy for Aragorn and the girl and hoped that they did indeed wind up together as a couple. Though he didn't quite grasp _why_ everyone was so upset with him and Merry.

"I'll apologize because I know what I've done to Miss Sara and Aragorn is wrong," Merry said as he slowly got to his feet and walked over to where Sara was sitting and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. Then once she turned to face him, he took one of her small hands in his and bowed to her. "I am sorry Miss Sara for the trouble that I have caused you and everyone else. I did not mean for anyone here to overhear my conversation with Peregrin when I told him of what I walked in on this morning. I was merely happy for you and Aragorn and forgot myself. It will not happen again." To be perfectly honest, the sandy blond haired hobbit didn't expect her to actually forgive him.

However when he straightened to his normal height and saw the smile on Sara's face, he knew then and there that he was forgiven by her. Even if Aragorn and the others would be holding a little bit of a grudge against him for a while.

Peregrin however... He looked back at him for a moment and heaved a heavy sigh before turning back to Sara and the rest of the fellowship and saying in a whispered tone, "I'll work on him and hopefully get your apology by the end of the night." Before bowing again to the girl and then walking back to where he had been seated and sat back down.

Everyone was...almost silent for a little bit longer, with the exception of Sam and Peregrin whom were both arguing over why one should apologize to Sara and the other was arguing back that it wasn't his damn fault that there were more people in the palace than he imagined.

He even went so far as to accuse some nameless people of skulking around in the shadows where they could eavesdrop on things.

Which was more than a little bit outrageous to everyone listening at the table. Elve's didn't make a habit of skulking and eavesdropping on the conversations of others. They had more tact than that! After all, they didn't really need to do so with those pointy ears and superior senses that they had.

Finally Sara had choked down all that she could manage given the fact that she felt like an insect on display, and turned to Aragorn to let him know that she was done now and would be returning to her room. He nodded his head in understanding as she signed out what she was going to do, and then watched her as she got up and left.

Only she didn't leave alone like she had intended.

Six soldiers decided to follow her out and as they did so- Aragorn's blood ran cold.

* * *

Sara sighed as she walked the darkening hall, her mind filled with everything that had happened since yesterday morning when she and the others had been attacked by those elves. And then there was the latest.

All because of a little bit of gossip.

Honestly did noble's have nothing better to do with their time than act like petty second graders?

Imagine...her a whore. The mere idea was laughable at best considering that she had never slept with anyone before. And she hadn't really dated anyone either. Not back in her world anyways.

Every time she had started to like a guy, he turned into a jerk who wanted more than to simply hold hands until she was ready to go any further. Why one had even tried to assault her once and had failed due to her kicking him in a very sensitive area before he could even unbuckle his pants. _The jackass_.

Still... She didn't really know what to do about her current situation. She was confused- or maybe it was puzzled? About her feelings for Aragorn. She liked him well enough. He was for the most part very kind and patient and understand. An excellent conversationalist and teacher.

He wasn't bad looking either.

But there was more to a man than his looks and she wasn't a terribly vain person to begin with. Though he did have pretty eyes, and an absolutely stunning smile. And his laugh...it caused a weird fluttering sensation in her stomach. Things that the mere thought of, elicited a weird overheated kind of reaction from her that caused her to flush and quickly shake her head.

_Okay, bad girl- try not to let your mind wander so much. He may like you, but then he's at least ten or more years than you are. For all you know he could be simply trying to be a good friend or something. Although...it was sort of a close call this morning... And he was acting very much like he wanted to_\- She stopped walking all of a sudden as her mind went blank for a moment before she thought, _God I hate myself sometimes. _

She was so lost in her own head that she almost missed the sound of Aragorn, Legolas and the others shouting her name as she slowly turned to see what was going on now- only to find herself partially surrounded by six men with their swords drawn.

One of them raised his sword up over his head, and she vaguely recalled hearing Aragorn shouting from down the hallway, _"No! Don't!"_ as the blade came down, and the grip slammed into the hollow of her shoulder so suddenly that she wasn't aware of anything beyond the searing agony that flooded her senses before crumpling to the floor unable to so much as breathe.


	15. Chapter 15

Three long and horrible and _traumatizing_ hours had passed since the last attack on Sara by the elves and Aragorn was _still_ fit to be tied. Even after the immediate incident- which had ended with more blood than even the ranger himself wished to admit to- he was still in a volatile state.

Of course Legolas, the hobbits, and Gimli were understanding of this, and waited patiently outside of Sara's room for any news on their young friend. Especially considering the fact that several other life altering things had occurred in that short time span.

One of which was Sara's injury, Elrond and Gandalf had had to become involved in healing her this time. Even with her healing ability kicking in, the girl had been in so much agony that they had feared she would suffer great mental handicaps once she was fully healed again.

As to the full extent of her injury- it was beyond_ horrifying_.

Not simply the massive dark discoloration that it left behind, but the fact that the man had struck down on her in such a way... It had been as if he had been trying to remove her skull from her spine either with the intent of crippling her or killing her outright.

And then there was the damage done to the bones and tissues of the wounded area. Her collarbone was shattered on one side, and her arm may have suffered severe nerve damage.

Which was in part why she had been in so much agony that Gandalf had had to place her in a deep, deep healing sleep after using some of his own power to help coax hers into working faster to help her, however that hadn't been the absolute worst of the news that the group had been given once Aragorn had managed to tear himself away from the men that he had slain.

No the absolute worst news that had come out of the whole incident, was the possibility that her heart had been damaged. Perhaps irreparably. Thus possibly shortening her young life even more than the ring could.

Aragron had been beyond furious, he had been downright inconsolable in his grief.

So much so that he had left and over the next two hours Elrond and Gandalf spent working on Sara- had caused many area's of Elrond's palace to run _red_ with the blood of the elves stupid enough to say or attack him for killing their friends before he had returned to Sara's side, eerily recomposed where he and Elrond spoke for a length before the man had merely nodded his head and left for a time.

And then returned a little while later with a parchment, a quill and some ink and then sat down with Aragorn and over the next few hours the two went back in forth over..._something_...until an agreement of some sort was met.

After that, Aragorn signed the parchment that Elrond had been writing on for the past few hours and then shortly after doing so, Frodo was called into the room and asked to stand as a witness.

The Halfling frowned at the request since he didn't know what it was that he was meant to witness exactly, but he did so anyways. Entering the room quietly and gently closing the door behind him, he glanced towards Sara who was still sleeping and then cast a questioning glance towards Elrond and Aragorn as he slowly shuffled forth.

"It's alright Frodo, there is no need for you to be so cautious." Elrond said gently as he held a hand out to him coaxingly as Frodo shot Aragorn a look that almost said, _Don't I? _Before deciding to ask why he had been called upon_. _

Elrond gave him a small half hearted smile, in truth, this occasion should have been a joyous one. For Aragorn at least. Instead the man mourned as if his chosen were either _dying_ or already dead instead of simply lying on the bed badly injured. Though he supposed that he could not fault his adoptive son for acting so.

"Come Frodo, we do not have all evening. You were asked to act as a witness to the signing of this contract," Elrond began before frowning and deciding to clarify things a little bit more since the hobbit was obviously feeling somewhat lost. "Tis a marriage contract. More like a marriage certificate really. Aragorn has already negotiated the terms of the contract with me, but well...as someone who was once the ring bearer yourself- we thought that you should act as Sara's guardian and look it over and sign it."

Frodo's eyes nearly popped right out of his head in stunned disbelief as he looked at the two, his mind going over things at a furious pace as he moved forward and took the parchment with slightly shaky hands and took a few moments to read and re read the contract just to be sure that everything was fair to both parties.

Since it was Aragorn, he didn't doubt that the man would be more than generous and fair with his terms. And he had been right. Their marriage would remain a secret until the ring was destroyed, and until that happened- he would openly court her for an undesignated amount of time.

He would not bed her nor do anything of a dishonorable nor inappropriate nature to her _before_ their wedding night. Upon the consummation of their union he would build a home for her, and provide for her and care for her all the days of her life.

In truth everything about the contract that Aragorn had negotiated was more than generous.

But he had his reservation about signing it on Sara's behalf since it would basically be like signing away her right to choose for herself. Plus there was the ring and the quest to think on. Having her married to Aragorn would be a distraction to them both.

And while he didn't doubt that Aragorn would do his damndest to make it so that that wasn't so, Sara was another matter entirely. She would be confused during her courtship and likely to become lost in her own head more than necessary. It would leave her open to more attacks like this last one and that could be bad, extremely bad.

Especially since he had a feeling that the fellowship would be setting out sooner than expected. Perhaps within the next day or so, after everyone had sworn an oath to protect Isildur's new Queen.

Though in the end, his reservations didn't amounted to much and he had signed the contract anyways and handed it back to Aragorn only after wrangling the promise that _nothing_ like this latest attack would ever happen to her again.

Aragorn had slowly nodded his head to Frodo and then took the contract and carefully folded it and placed it into one of the pouches attached to his belt and then quietly thanked him as he and Elrond left the room.

Leaving Sara and her new husband alone for the time being.

* * *

The moment that the door closed, Aragorn exhaled the breath that he hadn't been aware that he'd been holding for the past few minutes and turned his eyes to his little one. Already a majority of her injuries had been healed, and though Gandalf had told him that she would sleep, perhaps for the next few days, he found himself anxious for her to awaken so that they could start out on their journey as soon as possible.

Especially since he and the others knew that Rivendell was no longer safe for her anymore.

Sitting on the edge of her bed, he leaned over her. His large body easily dwarfing her own as he touched his forehead to her own and whispered in elven, _"Forgive me for allowing you to come to harm. And for marrying you without your knowledge. I swear that I will make it up to you one day." _

Reaching up with a shaky hand, he gently brushed her long-ish red bang back from her face and pressed his lips against the pale skin of her cheek and then stood up to go find the rest of the fellowship and tell them what he could of her condition before things spiraled out of his control again.

Looking back at his injured bride one last time, he noted how fragile she looked simply lying there on her bed and felt the barely extinguished flames of his rage begin to ignite again before he quickly turned and slipped out of the room.


End file.
